Hmmmmmm again, Mr. Sutherland my brain, it went on a trip somewhere else because absolutely no creative juices are flowing right now, sorry.
So, what do I think of the book? It's an amazing book, I can't deny it. Would I read it again, probably not because I never do that unless the book is the best thing ever. I like how....the...dad...got a dog for Christopher to try to makes amends for killing Wellington (holy crap I hear thunder, I think..it could be something else..maybe). Wellington seemed to be Christopher's best friend. It's quite cute.
Ummmm Christopher (I am so over writing that name) is an absolute genius and his mother (being a bitch) canceled his test because she thought she couldn't get him to Swindon in time, but then she ran away from her love affair back to Swindon, and didn't make it so Christopher could take the test. Siobhan made that happen, I like her but I still don't understand how she got in Christopher's life. I'm pretty sure she's a teacher or and aide but who knows. Uhhhh I don't know why I feel so passionately about hating his mother. I guess she's just one of those people I don't like for some reason or another.
Damn...214 words....and its 10:45....super lame. I should have done this yesterday....crap. Hmm I don't think it's thunder actually...just something loud and boomy. 242 words.....omg...
This book, it, was good. It gave me insite to autism even though the author isn't autistic. He looks like a major creeper though, he has a creepy smile and his hoop earring is kind of poking out. He's an odd one....287....I really should have done this yesterday.
Back to the book. It was good, and I wouldn't reread it and I read it. (I'm back to thinking it's thunder) Okay, it's 317 words. I know it's not 350 but thats okay.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Discussion 3
Well, in the beginning the discussion was kind of lame because no one wanted to say anything and didn't really have any motivation, and this persisted the entire time. So, our discussion didn't give us any new insite or meaning to the book.
The ending was quite controversial in who liked it or not. Some wanted to know how Christopher's life and relationships ended up while others just enjoyed the ending. I was one of the people who was just glad it ended (no because I didn't like the book, I just liked the ending). We clarified a lot, we talked about things that happened, and such. Nowara asked a very good question, "What would you do if you were Christopher and in his position", even though no one really had an answer it was still a good level three question...and the only one...
(Mr. Sutherland, I'm sorry this is so lame, my brain just left the building and is already on break)
Weeeee talked abouttt...things....We contributed to the other discussion ironically. I suppose we found their book more interesting or something. (Oh my goodness this is only 180 words.....damn). Hmmm, well, I made it very evident I think the mother is a bitch and needs to go do something with herself. Even though she makes Christopher feel safe and he actually wants to be with her, she's still a bitch. It's very annoying how selfish she is and how she wants things that she can't maintain, like a relationship with Christopher. (The name "Christopher" is getting old, having to keep rewriting it...no fun)
In the other discussion we talked a lot about how things are as opposed to now, and if things are regressing back to a form of suppression. People were also happy to say profane words otherwise not socially acceptable to say. It seemed that everyone had some input to that discussion.
The ending was quite controversial in who liked it or not. Some wanted to know how Christopher's life and relationships ended up while others just enjoyed the ending. I was one of the people who was just glad it ended (no because I didn't like the book, I just liked the ending). We clarified a lot, we talked about things that happened, and such. Nowara asked a very good question, "What would you do if you were Christopher and in his position", even though no one really had an answer it was still a good level three question...and the only one...
(Mr. Sutherland, I'm sorry this is so lame, my brain just left the building and is already on break)
Weeeee talked abouttt...things....We contributed to the other discussion ironically. I suppose we found their book more interesting or something. (Oh my goodness this is only 180 words.....damn). Hmmm, well, I made it very evident I think the mother is a bitch and needs to go do something with herself. Even though she makes Christopher feel safe and he actually wants to be with her, she's still a bitch. It's very annoying how selfish she is and how she wants things that she can't maintain, like a relationship with Christopher. (The name "Christopher" is getting old, having to keep rewriting it...no fun)
In the other discussion we talked a lot about how things are as opposed to now, and if things are regressing back to a form of suppression. People were also happy to say profane words otherwise not socially acceptable to say. It seemed that everyone had some input to that discussion.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Response to The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time 2
I've begun to like this book more and more. It has slowly progressed into a book I actually like. I've noticed that the father seems almost abusive in all his profanities and alcohol consumption. One quote from his father is, "Holy fucking Jesus, Christopher. How stupid are you?" I found this ridiculously offensive. He said this because Christopher continued talking to Mrs. Alexander even after his father told him not to.
Later in the story we find out that Christopher's mother is still alive. At first he doesn't get it and tried to rationalize what he doesn't understand. Later he realizes what they all mean. All together there were forty-three letters, mostly about his mother's new life and her significant other, Roger (aka Mr. Shears), in London. Ironically in chapters later to come we find out that Mrs. Shears and Christopher's father had a thing going. His father felt so jealous of the dog she owned that he killed it. Not thinking of Christopher at all. Over all it seemed as if Christopher had a stronger bond with the dog then his father.
One thing I noticed is that the only person who has a first name besides Christopher is Siobhan. Everyone else had a Mr./Mrs./Ms. or it was in correlation to his relationship with them such as, father/mother/grandmother.
His mother is kind of a bitch, even though she seems to be the most important person to her because he keeps remembering her and wants to stay with her. I found it very interesting how even though she ran away with Roger she still gave Chris space. I know how Christopher feels in this situation and it's really amazing how she gave him time. Even though she wrote him every week saying how much she missed him, explaining how amazing her new life is and allowing him to be apart of it. She may be a bitch for some of the things she said, but this was an amazing thing she did and I respect her for it.
Later in the story we find out that Christopher's mother is still alive. At first he doesn't get it and tried to rationalize what he doesn't understand. Later he realizes what they all mean. All together there were forty-three letters, mostly about his mother's new life and her significant other, Roger (aka Mr. Shears), in London. Ironically in chapters later to come we find out that Mrs. Shears and Christopher's father had a thing going. His father felt so jealous of the dog she owned that he killed it. Not thinking of Christopher at all. Over all it seemed as if Christopher had a stronger bond with the dog then his father.
One thing I noticed is that the only person who has a first name besides Christopher is Siobhan. Everyone else had a Mr./Mrs./Ms. or it was in correlation to his relationship with them such as, father/mother/grandmother.
His mother is kind of a bitch, even though she seems to be the most important person to her because he keeps remembering her and wants to stay with her. I found it very interesting how even though she ran away with Roger she still gave Chris space. I know how Christopher feels in this situation and it's really amazing how she gave him time. Even though she wrote him every week saying how much she missed him, explaining how amazing her new life is and allowing him to be apart of it. She may be a bitch for some of the things she said, but this was an amazing thing she did and I respect her for it.
Response to Class Discussion 2
I find our class discussions to be getting weaker each week. It seemed like we didn't have the heart to really analyze the book like we did last week. We also seemed to all be on different pages. I noticed that I kept tuning out of our conversation and listening to the "Finding Alaska" group. There book seems quite interesting, but from what I've heard he didn't plan his adventure very well. Back to "The Curious Case of the Don in the Night-Time" discussion, we talked about how controversial our views on the mother are. Some of us call her a bitch, others don't blame her for leaving, and some don't know what she did. That is one thing troubling me about our group, we have such different takes on the book and some people know things others don't and its just frustrating trying to voice our thoughts while understand another's. We also have yet to understand autism. I think that is one of the major problems. None of us fully understand what we are reading so we keep asking questions to people out of our group hoping for answers but with that we have less time do discuss and analyze the book.
Just saying autism is: "Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior." Doesn't give us the insite we need to understand Christopher. What Mr. Sutherland said of how people with autism about a man who is a mathematical genius but doesn't read math like a different language but sees it like a painting and landscapes. He replaces numbers with colors and it just works. Gina said that having autism is like thinking in pictures instead of words and that just gave me a whole new understanding to autism.
Just saying autism is: "Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior." Doesn't give us the insite we need to understand Christopher. What Mr. Sutherland said of how people with autism about a man who is a mathematical genius but doesn't read math like a different language but sees it like a painting and landscapes. He replaces numbers with colors and it just works. Gina said that having autism is like thinking in pictures instead of words and that just gave me a whole new understanding to autism.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Class Discussion Number 1
In class we discussed a lot about Autism. None of us really knew what it was. We all had ideas and knew little tid bits but over all we were uneducated on the topic of Autism. According to Wikipedia Autism is:
"Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. It is one of three recognized disorders in the autism spectrum (ASDs), the other two being Asperger syndrome, which lacks delays in cognitive development and language, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, which is diagnosed when the full set of criteria for autism or Asperger syndrome are not met."
Autism is so interesting to me because it can happen genetically but can also be acquired through various ways.
We also discussed how Christopher says he cannot lie even though he does. We noticed a trend of him lying when he was told to not do something even though he wanted to-so he was going to do it anyways. He also lied saying that it was okay because they were only white lies. So, it seemed as though Christopher did tell the full truth to his version of the story.
We also discussed his emotions for his mother. He seemed to usually only think about people in his everyday life but he still talked about her even after death. We noticed how horribly she treated him. She would say things like, "Your going to drive me to an early grave" and such to try to emphasize how difficult he was. She also cheated on Christopher's father. Though it didn't have much of an effect on Christopher it impacted his family and his relationship with his neighbor-the one who slept with his mother.
This book is confusing to me because it seems rude to write from the mind of an autistic boy when the author is not himself-even though writing a story is about changing characters and and making the audience believe him-but on the other hand he was seen as an expert on autism after the book was written.
"Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. It is one of three recognized disorders in the autism spectrum (ASDs), the other two being Asperger syndrome, which lacks delays in cognitive development and language, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, which is diagnosed when the full set of criteria for autism or Asperger syndrome are not met."
Autism is so interesting to me because it can happen genetically but can also be acquired through various ways.
We also discussed how Christopher says he cannot lie even though he does. We noticed a trend of him lying when he was told to not do something even though he wanted to-so he was going to do it anyways. He also lied saying that it was okay because they were only white lies. So, it seemed as though Christopher did tell the full truth to his version of the story.
We also discussed his emotions for his mother. He seemed to usually only think about people in his everyday life but he still talked about her even after death. We noticed how horribly she treated him. She would say things like, "Your going to drive me to an early grave" and such to try to emphasize how difficult he was. She also cheated on Christopher's father. Though it didn't have much of an effect on Christopher it impacted his family and his relationship with his neighbor-the one who slept with his mother.
This book is confusing to me because it seems rude to write from the mind of an autistic boy when the author is not himself-even though writing a story is about changing characters and and making the audience believe him-but on the other hand he was seen as an expert on autism after the book was written.
Response Number One
So far I like this book. I like how the author puts the reader in the mind of Christopher. I noticed that he is very sporadic in his thought patterns but that is what makes it interesting.
The book is about a fifteen year old boy named Christopher John Francis Boone, we come into his life when he finds a dog murdered with a pitch fork, because of his love for animals Christopher is determined to find the culprit. I could tell that something seemed off with Christopher, I began to notice this when he was trying to determine emotions through pictures of faces that his friend Siobhan drew to help him. He automatically knew happy and sad but when the expressions became more complex he began to struggle with interpretation. I thought that he had a social impairment mixed with an attention disorder, later I found out that he was autistic. This became evident when he was found with the dogs dead body. He was clutching it and mourning the death of his friend when the police officer came to question him. Because Christopher felt uncomfortable with the closeness of the officer he hit him to get him away and then was arrested for assaulting a police officer. Once he was put in his cell he felt more comfortable because it was what he had seen in movies.
Later in the chapter Christopher's father picked him up from the station. I thought the way they expressed love for each other was so sweet, because Chris doesn't like to be touched his father came up of a way to hug him without much physical contact. They spread their fingers into a fan and touch the pads of their fingers together.
One person Christopher seemed extremely close to was his mother. He often thinks about her and showed that he deeply cared for her when she was hospitalized, even thought he appeared to be aloof to the situation. Later in the book the audience finds out that his mother was unfaithful to his father from a woman named Ms. Andrews. It was extremely difficult to understand how he felt about this. All he did was promise not to tell and walked home. I feel like he knows that it is socially inappropriate but doesn't seem to care.
The book is about a fifteen year old boy named Christopher John Francis Boone, we come into his life when he finds a dog murdered with a pitch fork, because of his love for animals Christopher is determined to find the culprit. I could tell that something seemed off with Christopher, I began to notice this when he was trying to determine emotions through pictures of faces that his friend Siobhan drew to help him. He automatically knew happy and sad but when the expressions became more complex he began to struggle with interpretation. I thought that he had a social impairment mixed with an attention disorder, later I found out that he was autistic. This became evident when he was found with the dogs dead body. He was clutching it and mourning the death of his friend when the police officer came to question him. Because Christopher felt uncomfortable with the closeness of the officer he hit him to get him away and then was arrested for assaulting a police officer. Once he was put in his cell he felt more comfortable because it was what he had seen in movies.
Later in the chapter Christopher's father picked him up from the station. I thought the way they expressed love for each other was so sweet, because Chris doesn't like to be touched his father came up of a way to hug him without much physical contact. They spread their fingers into a fan and touch the pads of their fingers together.
One person Christopher seemed extremely close to was his mother. He often thinks about her and showed that he deeply cared for her when she was hospitalized, even thought he appeared to be aloof to the situation. Later in the book the audience finds out that his mother was unfaithful to his father from a woman named Ms. Andrews. It was extremely difficult to understand how he felt about this. All he did was promise not to tell and walked home. I feel like he knows that it is socially inappropriate but doesn't seem to care.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Garcia Girls Final
The book
In the book
Sophia was a character of intrest for me. Sofia is the youngest daughter, in the beginning she was a girl who seemed to have inappropriate feelings towards her father, later, as she got older, she had constant boyfriends and ran off with a man named Otto from Germany-against her fathers wishes which created a tense and hostile relationship with him. After a failed relationship with a Dominican boyfriend that seemed to be the turning point where she finally embraced American attitudes toward sexual relationships. She challenges all sexual double standards that she finds in Dominican culture and claims independence. When she had her children it seems to be the ice breaker for her and her father, but at his birthday party she flaunts her sexuality and his powerlessness to control it by kissing his ear in a particularly seductive way brining up the inappropriate relationship once more. Later in the book it is discovered that because of her age, she hardly has any memories of the Dominican Republic, but for some reason she does remember the Haitian maid, Chucha, who performed voodoo spells and slept in a coffin.
Overall this story fascinated me, not necessarily for the content but for Alverez. Not many people will admit to it, but she did control the entire book. She used her influence to shape her audience views. Even if no one believes this, just having that feeling of confusion at the end of the book when it just starts at the beginning is just Alverez having control over you. I found this extremely interesting and ended up wanting to meet her for a better understanding of the book and learn how she got the audience to fall under her spell.
The Garcia Girls Lost their Accentby Julia Alverez is about four sisters and how their lives evolved into the lives they lived to the lives they are currently living. The book is written in reverse chronological order, as confusing as that may seem, presumably, it is what made the book a topic of intrest for schools to expose their students to. In the beginning, she gave us characters that I personally didn't care for or feel any connection to and her writing gave an understanding of each personality we experienced as readers and brought emotion to the audience. Finding out who each girl was and how they got there was quite interesting. The book also did not have an ending, it was a loop. It started and ended with the same emotion and almsot same place in time. Alverez's style is unique to what I am used to for school reading material. I think the reason we were supposed to read this was not to find meaning in the book and shed light on topic that is yet to be discovered, I think it was more about writing. Alverez contorted her readers to think exactly what she wanted the to, essentially she mind effed us to be her puppets and I respect the hell out of her for it. To me it seemed like she didn't care if her audience liked it or not, in any circumstance, she seemed to have the last laugh.
In the book
The Garcia Girls Lost their Accentby Julia Alverez,it almost seemed like a diary because of the personality she brought to the book. She seemed very secretive and open about what she wrote so I still can't tell if it's a therapy or if it's just a story. With each character she brought the most intimate stories that would either scar a child forever or shape who they would become. I must admit, I couldn't put the idea of sexual abuse out of mind. Sex was the underlying theme for the entire book, in every chapter and every story there was something involving sex. If it was sleeping with a married man to proving that you are a lady to your cousin to having pornographic pictures that the family gardener looked at. The sexual abuse theme seemed to be true for Yolanda and Sophia, and had the biggest impact on their lives. Yolanda's seemed to effect her later in life causing her to make decisions that were "vulgar" and not socially acceptable. Sophia on the other hand, she was effected throughout her life. The first symptoms of her inappropriate showed with her relationship with her father. She expressed and attraction that should have still been foreign to her, especially to her father.
Sophia was a character of intrest for me. Sofia is the youngest daughter, in the beginning she was a girl who seemed to have inappropriate feelings towards her father, later, as she got older, she had constant boyfriends and ran off with a man named Otto from Germany-against her fathers wishes which created a tense and hostile relationship with him. After a failed relationship with a Dominican boyfriend that seemed to be the turning point where she finally embraced American attitudes toward sexual relationships. She challenges all sexual double standards that she finds in Dominican culture and claims independence. When she had her children it seems to be the ice breaker for her and her father, but at his birthday party she flaunts her sexuality and his powerlessness to control it by kissing his ear in a particularly seductive way brining up the inappropriate relationship once more. Later in the book it is discovered that because of her age, she hardly has any memories of the Dominican Republic, but for some reason she does remember the Haitian maid, Chucha, who performed voodoo spells and slept in a coffin.
Overall this story fascinated me, not necessarily for the content but for Alverez. Not many people will admit to it, but she did control the entire book. She used her influence to shape her audience views. Even if no one believes this, just having that feeling of confusion at the end of the book when it just starts at the beginning is just Alverez having control over you. I found this extremely interesting and ended up wanting to meet her for a better understanding of the book and learn how she got the audience to fall under her spell.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Final Response to Garcia Girls
Well, this book was extremely confusing. In the beginning I didn't really care about anyone and didn't think too much of it. By the end I still wasn't into it, but I started liking some of the characters.
Personally I think this book was written as some sort of a diary. It seemed extremely personal but disguised as a story. Alverez, said to be the character Yolanda, had major issues with sex and sex was the main underlying theme through out the entire book. So, I'm guessing there was some abuse in her life. I also think that this book was written for people from the ages of twenty-seven to thirty-five. These may seem like random numbers, they are, but they seem to be true. Especially because Mr. Sutherland fits this standard and enjoyed the book.
I admit to not being fair to this book, I didn't give it my full attention and skimmed through it a lot. This probably wasn't the best idea because the book is known to be a difficult read and confusing. I probably didn't give it the credit it deserved.
Sometime later in life I will probably reread it-preferably when I am of the ages twenty-seven to thirty-one-and will probably have a better understanding of it. In the group discussion this was agreed on, but the rebuttal was that as teenagers we have certain ideas that only pertain to our age group. I do think this is revenant and very understandable, but I also think that it is harder for us to relate to such complex material.
Overall this wasn't that horrible of a book. I actually liked parts of it. Some of the messages were not understood and fulling relating to each character is close to imposible, especially for our age group. One thing that I didn't understand was if these were all here memories but said from different perspectives or if these were the memories from her family members and loved ones.
Personally I think this book was written as some sort of a diary. It seemed extremely personal but disguised as a story. Alverez, said to be the character Yolanda, had major issues with sex and sex was the main underlying theme through out the entire book. So, I'm guessing there was some abuse in her life. I also think that this book was written for people from the ages of twenty-seven to thirty-five. These may seem like random numbers, they are, but they seem to be true. Especially because Mr. Sutherland fits this standard and enjoyed the book.
I admit to not being fair to this book, I didn't give it my full attention and skimmed through it a lot. This probably wasn't the best idea because the book is known to be a difficult read and confusing. I probably didn't give it the credit it deserved.
Sometime later in life I will probably reread it-preferably when I am of the ages twenty-seven to thirty-one-and will probably have a better understanding of it. In the group discussion this was agreed on, but the rebuttal was that as teenagers we have certain ideas that only pertain to our age group. I do think this is revenant and very understandable, but I also think that it is harder for us to relate to such complex material.
Overall this wasn't that horrible of a book. I actually liked parts of it. Some of the messages were not understood and fulling relating to each character is close to imposible, especially for our age group. One thing that I didn't understand was if these were all here memories but said from different perspectives or if these were the memories from her family members and loved ones.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
So, as I have expressed to some people, I think I am going to be a very crazy old person. It is just predetermined.
One of the reasons I think this is because of my Granny. She is pretty damn crazy (in the good way) but never the less crazy. It's sad actually, I hold a lot of hostility towards her and we're running out of time to make amends. I'm not quite sure what to do about it. She may be crazy and controlling but she is my Granny and she gave birth to the person who gave birth to me. She was also the person who I was with for like 90% of my childhood, but when I was able to start thinking for myself things went south. At this point I'm not sure if anything would make a difference. Currently she has alzheimer's disease so I don't know how much longer she will be able to remember me. Right now, I don't know if she knows we don't get along well. I don't even know if she knows that I am a teenager and not a little girl anymore. Actually taking the time to think about this, it really saddens me. How would it feel to one day wake up and not recognize your daughter, to not even know you had a child.
I don't know if I can handle this when I'm older. Granted my Granny likes messing with people so she does make things harder to differ from alzheimer's or her just playing around. Sometimes it's very evident, when she gets a blank look in her eyes, it's like looking at a doll. She also doesn't eat very well so her blood pressure is high and her body is giving out. That is one thing I know I couldn't deal with. I couldn't be restrained from movement. I honestly hope we make amends before it is too late, she is a good person, she may be lost and unorthodox, but she is still my Granny.
One of the reasons I think this is because of my Granny. She is pretty damn crazy (in the good way) but never the less crazy. It's sad actually, I hold a lot of hostility towards her and we're running out of time to make amends. I'm not quite sure what to do about it. She may be crazy and controlling but she is my Granny and she gave birth to the person who gave birth to me. She was also the person who I was with for like 90% of my childhood, but when I was able to start thinking for myself things went south. At this point I'm not sure if anything would make a difference. Currently she has alzheimer's disease so I don't know how much longer she will be able to remember me. Right now, I don't know if she knows we don't get along well. I don't even know if she knows that I am a teenager and not a little girl anymore. Actually taking the time to think about this, it really saddens me. How would it feel to one day wake up and not recognize your daughter, to not even know you had a child.
I don't know if I can handle this when I'm older. Granted my Granny likes messing with people so she does make things harder to differ from alzheimer's or her just playing around. Sometimes it's very evident, when she gets a blank look in her eyes, it's like looking at a doll. She also doesn't eat very well so her blood pressure is high and her body is giving out. That is one thing I know I couldn't deal with. I couldn't be restrained from movement. I honestly hope we make amends before it is too late, she is a good person, she may be lost and unorthodox, but she is still my Granny.
Responce to Stan
I read Stan's blog because most everything I saw in recent posts were responses to his, so I decided to read it Stan's Blog
"My take on the whole love scenario is that it is completely made up. It is just a state of mind that your brain tricks itself into believing is real... At this age you are guaranteed this feeling of "Love"...At this stage in our lives relationships are not meant to be everlasting, at this age relationships are just for the fun of it, or at least in the beginning they are."
I have to admit I used to think that way too. Especially because I always saw my parents fighting and thought that it is impossible to love someone forever, and the only true love I saw was between my Aunt and Uncle who were married longer than they weren't, but this came to an abrupt end when he passed away. That was when I had no hope for love because I thought it couldn't last. This is only one way of looking at love though, there are different ways of loving someone (as I posted in another blog). In this case it is talking about a romantic relation.
Talking about his girlfriend Stan states,"I love her to death and i would do anything for her on any day. But would i shed a tear if she left me? If she cheated? No, i wouldn't."
I think this is an automatic response for some people, I have been cheated on before and I didn't cry, I got angry and after about two weeks I made sure that he had dropped of the face of the planet and I was just doing things just to spite his actions. I think that it's a result to being hurt, I may not have cried but I was still hurt.
I always thought of myself of leaving the love of my life, just picking up and leaving for no reason other than being scared. I also never saw myself in a long distance relationship, let alone it lasting and being extremely important. It's true, I don't believe in love for some cases and for some people, but I can't deny being in love. Granted we are hella young and the odds of staying together forever are one in a million, but I have seen lovers starting in high school and I have seen them grow as people and still be just as in love as they were the first time they laid eyes on each other. I hope that this will be the case because I'm not going to let the phrase, "All good things come to and end" be true.
"My take on the whole love scenario is that it is completely made up. It is just a state of mind that your brain tricks itself into believing is real... At this age you are guaranteed this feeling of "Love"...At this stage in our lives relationships are not meant to be everlasting, at this age relationships are just for the fun of it, or at least in the beginning they are."
I have to admit I used to think that way too. Especially because I always saw my parents fighting and thought that it is impossible to love someone forever, and the only true love I saw was between my Aunt and Uncle who were married longer than they weren't, but this came to an abrupt end when he passed away. That was when I had no hope for love because I thought it couldn't last. This is only one way of looking at love though, there are different ways of loving someone (as I posted in another blog). In this case it is talking about a romantic relation.
Talking about his girlfriend Stan states,"I love her to death and i would do anything for her on any day. But would i shed a tear if she left me? If she cheated? No, i wouldn't."
I think this is an automatic response for some people, I have been cheated on before and I didn't cry, I got angry and after about two weeks I made sure that he had dropped of the face of the planet and I was just doing things just to spite his actions. I think that it's a result to being hurt, I may not have cried but I was still hurt.
I always thought of myself of leaving the love of my life, just picking up and leaving for no reason other than being scared. I also never saw myself in a long distance relationship, let alone it lasting and being extremely important. It's true, I don't believe in love for some cases and for some people, but I can't deny being in love. Granted we are hella young and the odds of staying together forever are one in a million, but I have seen lovers starting in high school and I have seen them grow as people and still be just as in love as they were the first time they laid eyes on each other. I hope that this will be the case because I'm not going to let the phrase, "All good things come to and end" be true.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
How the Gracia Girls Lost their Accents Response 2
I think that How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents is rather boring. Not saying it is not good, it just is not very interesting to me. The only character I care for is Sophia. This is because she is a bit of a wild child but she does accept responsibility for her actions. When pot was discovered by the maid-thinking it was oregano-in the four girl's room, Sophia took the blame even though none of them were innocent. I did discuss the novel with Mr. Sutherland for a different perspective than a student forced to read it. He actually really enjoyed it and had just about the opposite reaction of many students. I found this very interesting. I wondered if it was his teacher training or if it was just a more mature outlook on the book, but his words did give me hope for a more interesting ending for the book.
One of the reasons I thought that the students don't enjoy the novel as much as Mr. Sutherland is because of how split our attention has to be. Ever night students are assigned homework and just by having a life our attention has to be focused on many topics. One of my personal problems with this book is that it is the last thing I do. Once I'm in bed and all I want to do is sleep, that is when I read, so it makes it just that much harder to concentrate. I was also thinking that the novel might not be what students are looking for in a story. After reading Night we might have expected something that spoke to us and really made us think and question many things. Granted we chose the book by vote, we still didn't really know what we were getting into. I will honestly admit that I chose the book by the cover. The title looked interesting, the picture was enticing, and the little blurb on the back made it sound like a really really good book. The book is actually a good book if you really think about it, it just wasn't what I expected.
One of the reasons I thought that the students don't enjoy the novel as much as Mr. Sutherland is because of how split our attention has to be. Ever night students are assigned homework and just by having a life our attention has to be focused on many topics. One of my personal problems with this book is that it is the last thing I do. Once I'm in bed and all I want to do is sleep, that is when I read, so it makes it just that much harder to concentrate. I was also thinking that the novel might not be what students are looking for in a story. After reading Night we might have expected something that spoke to us and really made us think and question many things. Granted we chose the book by vote, we still didn't really know what we were getting into. I will honestly admit that I chose the book by the cover. The title looked interesting, the picture was enticing, and the little blurb on the back made it sound like a really really good book. The book is actually a good book if you really think about it, it just wasn't what I expected.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Sleep Deprivation
ASTI has turned me into a zombie. Yes, I do extra curricular activities so it does make my life more chaotic but I am now fully running on auto pilot.
Today I was asked by a friend to help with concession stands at his school play, so I agreed knowing I had friends there. In the first act I was awake and lively, I sold food, I helped out, I did whatever was asked of me, in the second act I fell asleep. Because I missed the first act I was confused just coming into the second act with no prior knowledge. To be frank it kind of sucked. I was with friends I haven't seen in a very long time and I was actually doing something that didn't involve dance or school, and I fell asleep.
During the first act I was back stage, I met so many new people and it was quite fun. We told stories and got to just have a good time. This made me realize how I've stopped just goofing off in life, I only do things for a purpose. I also noticed how I can't "waste" my time anymore. I couldn't sit through one act with out being antsy, I quickly grew impatient and wanted to use my time in a better way than I was currently doing. I was constantly moving and talking to new people, almost learning about them as individuals. This was interesting to find out how different I am in social settings. I still am functional and can fit in in an environment such as this, I just view it in a different way. Instead of being the center of attention and radiating good emotions, I've converted to taking note into every mannerism someone has, taking it into account and having fun in that way.
Learning these new techniques I have, I think it has to do with not sleeping or relaxing. Instead of learning my environment the kind of forcing people to shape their views to mine, I save all that energy and focus it to not having any conflicting personality traits with them. This is probably better in the long run, but before I over analyze myself, I'm going to sleep.
Today I was asked by a friend to help with concession stands at his school play, so I agreed knowing I had friends there. In the first act I was awake and lively, I sold food, I helped out, I did whatever was asked of me, in the second act I fell asleep. Because I missed the first act I was confused just coming into the second act with no prior knowledge. To be frank it kind of sucked. I was with friends I haven't seen in a very long time and I was actually doing something that didn't involve dance or school, and I fell asleep.
During the first act I was back stage, I met so many new people and it was quite fun. We told stories and got to just have a good time. This made me realize how I've stopped just goofing off in life, I only do things for a purpose. I also noticed how I can't "waste" my time anymore. I couldn't sit through one act with out being antsy, I quickly grew impatient and wanted to use my time in a better way than I was currently doing. I was constantly moving and talking to new people, almost learning about them as individuals. This was interesting to find out how different I am in social settings. I still am functional and can fit in in an environment such as this, I just view it in a different way. Instead of being the center of attention and radiating good emotions, I've converted to taking note into every mannerism someone has, taking it into account and having fun in that way.
Learning these new techniques I have, I think it has to do with not sleeping or relaxing. Instead of learning my environment the kind of forcing people to shape their views to mine, I save all that energy and focus it to not having any conflicting personality traits with them. This is probably better in the long run, but before I over analyze myself, I'm going to sleep.
Response to "Innocence"
I said something along the lines of, "What is innocence or how did it come about" in Sutherland's class today. So these are my thoughts:
I don't know what being innocent actually means: free from guilt or sin especially through lack of knowledge of evil-blameless, harmless in effect or intention, and free from legal guilt or fault-lawful. This was not helpful at all. These are the "terms" we discussed all day in class. The first thing that poped in my head was that someone was not exposed to the horrores of the world-completely disregarding any legal terms. The group I was assigned to discussed all of the questions Mr. Sutherland gave us, the we bagan to discuss all the scenarios that could have taken "someones innocence", the we bagan talking about personal thoughts of how we individually we are and how we feel about our innocence or even if we still have it. Annie brought up some very interesting points of how she isn't innocent to the world's problems but she is innocent to other things. This kind of gave our group another look one the term innocent, because of how many different ways one can be innocent.
Another aspect of innocents is what you think of yourself. You define how innocent or not innocent you are. Things can happen to you but you don't have to have it effect how innocent you are, but thats thinking of things as a "high school innocence". Personally, I feel bad for men. Being innocent isn't considered a good thing for them, usually if they are, they are ridiculed for being so-this was also a conversation in our group. We talked about how men who haven't slept with someone is usually outcasted for not being "cool" but if they sleep with many different partners they are considered a stud, but if a woman does this she is considered a slut. This duble standard confuses the hell out of me.
I don't know what being innocent actually means: free from guilt or sin especially through lack of knowledge of evil-blameless, harmless in effect or intention, and free from legal guilt or fault-lawful. This was not helpful at all. These are the "terms" we discussed all day in class. The first thing that poped in my head was that someone was not exposed to the horrores of the world-completely disregarding any legal terms. The group I was assigned to discussed all of the questions Mr. Sutherland gave us, the we bagan to discuss all the scenarios that could have taken "someones innocence", the we bagan talking about personal thoughts of how we individually we are and how we feel about our innocence or even if we still have it. Annie brought up some very interesting points of how she isn't innocent to the world's problems but she is innocent to other things. This kind of gave our group another look one the term innocent, because of how many different ways one can be innocent.
Another aspect of innocents is what you think of yourself. You define how innocent or not innocent you are. Things can happen to you but you don't have to have it effect how innocent you are, but thats thinking of things as a "high school innocence". Personally, I feel bad for men. Being innocent isn't considered a good thing for them, usually if they are, they are ridiculed for being so-this was also a conversation in our group. We talked about how men who haven't slept with someone is usually outcasted for not being "cool" but if they sleep with many different partners they are considered a stud, but if a woman does this she is considered a slut. This duble standard confuses the hell out of me.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Response to How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents
This book is extremely confusing. I've noticed that I started falling asleep while reading, I try very hard to stay awake so I am constantly moving so I probably look a little crazy.
The more I read the less intrigued I am, but there is this certain thing that just holds me and keeps my attention. There is this certain undetermined factor that just keeps me reading. This is baffling because I don't necessarily enjoy the book. It's written in a very interesting manner, out of order, reverse chronological order with multiple perspectives. That is pretty intense. Some parts of this book are just...not what I am accustomed to. The youngest daughter shoved her tongue into her fathers ear and nibbled on his ear-while he was blind folded-for a game her family was playing. Gina brought up that Sophia and her father might have had a "different" relationship, this is just a theory because we have no evidence to back it up, yet. Annie brought up another point that later in the book Sophia's mother tried to hide her success from her husband, so there seems to be a lot of under lying messages that are yet to be found.
This book has a lot of sex, but it's not upfront. So, I'm left thinking I have a dirty mind. Thankfully we had a class discussion and I am not the only one thinking there is underlying sex everywhere. It's just kind of there. This book might be so intriguing because of the preshadowing used in the book. I know that the book flows in a reverse chronological fashion so it leaves me wondering how the characters ended up the way they did. Especially Sophia, I know that Yolanda is the "main" character but Sophia just seems like there is much more than one would expect, but her relationship with her father is worrisome.
As for what is going to happen, I don't have a clue. I am barely comprehending the current events let alone what has happened in the past. I think that Julia Alvarez enjoys messing with peoples minds if so, she is very good at it. I feel like what she wants us to think is right infront of us but I'm looking in the complete other direction. I guess only time will tell how I end up feeling about the book.
The more I read the less intrigued I am, but there is this certain thing that just holds me and keeps my attention. There is this certain undetermined factor that just keeps me reading. This is baffling because I don't necessarily enjoy the book. It's written in a very interesting manner, out of order, reverse chronological order with multiple perspectives. That is pretty intense. Some parts of this book are just...not what I am accustomed to. The youngest daughter shoved her tongue into her fathers ear and nibbled on his ear-while he was blind folded-for a game her family was playing. Gina brought up that Sophia and her father might have had a "different" relationship, this is just a theory because we have no evidence to back it up, yet. Annie brought up another point that later in the book Sophia's mother tried to hide her success from her husband, so there seems to be a lot of under lying messages that are yet to be found.
This book has a lot of sex, but it's not upfront. So, I'm left thinking I have a dirty mind. Thankfully we had a class discussion and I am not the only one thinking there is underlying sex everywhere. It's just kind of there. This book might be so intriguing because of the preshadowing used in the book. I know that the book flows in a reverse chronological fashion so it leaves me wondering how the characters ended up the way they did. Especially Sophia, I know that Yolanda is the "main" character but Sophia just seems like there is much more than one would expect, but her relationship with her father is worrisome.
As for what is going to happen, I don't have a clue. I am barely comprehending the current events let alone what has happened in the past. I think that Julia Alvarez enjoys messing with peoples minds if so, she is very good at it. I feel like what she wants us to think is right infront of us but I'm looking in the complete other direction. I guess only time will tell how I end up feeling about the book.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Refelection
In past blogs I've been angry and very righteous. I have discussed how I feel about the world, admittedly I didn't think much of it through, and I also have talked about people I care about.
For awhile Night was a topic of my blog, this is because it was so important to what we were learning and it made me think about a humans psychology a lot. Night seemed to be so powerful and so important to history, it is said that we are taught about genocide so that we never repeat it, but we have repeated it, over and over.
In the beginning I wrote what was assigned. Not much thought was put in it and I just wrote was expected, I did write some things that were important to me, such as my response to Just Kidding a and my trip to Ashland. These posts happened right before I got angry, in class we were supposed to respond to a girl about her thoughts on fashion and that got it started. Then became my reign of righteous, my thoughts were very crude and not thought out.
I started to notice how much things have changed. I'm realizing how much I hate having a blog. I feel like it is good to express one's self through writing, but I personally feel like all the wrong people are reading my blog. I know that I direct some of my writing to some people, but I know they can't read it. Then someone who doesn't know me reads it and takes it completely different than it is. I'm not sure how I would feel comfortable with blogging. If I could, I would be up front and dedicate my pieces to the person it is directed for, but I can. Usually it's about something illegal, wrong, they can get put in an institution, or it's just plain embarrassing. I wouldn't expose someone like that. If the person I wrote about reads the material they will know it's about them, but that is hardly ever the case.
They way I support myself through blogging is how I saw what is on my mind, but sensored. Like I'm going to do right now. All I want is to cry right now, but if I do the tears will be wasted. People keep doing what they do and they don't care who they hurt. It's just a fact of human nature, and growing older I see this more and more. I don't understand how someone can say, "I love you" and mean it, but actually has no love. This has repeatedly happened. Love is such a stupid concept. Some of the many definitions of love is: a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person,a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend, sexual passion or desire,a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart. So this covers most love we have been exposed to. Plato once said that humans were created with two arms, two legs, and two faces. When Zuse felt threatened he cut of one of the faces so humans would spend eternity looking for their other half. Plato never mentioned where Zuse placed this "other half". Did he destroy it or simply place it somewhere else? Even if love is found it only takes one moment to lose it. One moment out of millions. What if that other half was the one you were searching for? What if your other half was searching for someone else? What if your other half doesn't love or want to love you back. I don't understand why people continue to love if all it does is hurt in the end. Granted there are good times that make you feel on top of the world, and it is expected to fall in and out of love many many times in life, but if that love you feel is gone, there is just an empty space. Whether this was someone that died, a romantic partner, a parent, a friend, a spouse, family. It could be anyone, and it doesn't stop the hurt. It seems that if someone doesn't physically see your pain they don't see it at all.
I surprised myself with how much of myself I show. I am usually a enigma, no one actually knows anything. For some reason this doesn't apply anymore and it scares me. I don't want people knowing me or what goes on with me. I especially don't want people to know what I care about, because then they know how to hurt me. I feel like this is the greatest power anyone can have on another. This is how you determine real people from the fake ones. I've also realized how with blogging and the tenth grade curriculum how angry I am at people in general. I strongly dislike how we treat each other. There is absolutely no love between anyone. How the hell can anyone be so cold hearted? It seems every one in the world has this instinct to constantly look for love, crave it, go to great extents to get it, bitch about having it, and cry and hate when it's gone. It is a cycle repeated every day.
Overall I've come to realize how confused about love I am. I don't believe in it, yet I'm in it. I've only seen one example of true love and death departed them. I thought I saw ever lasting love until the man left. I see people hating each other but staying together because they have to. I see people loving each other but can't show it for one reason or another. I've see true love diminished by drugs over and over and over again. This is another reason I hate drugs, if you love at all, how can you put them trough this. On another day I'll feel love, in another life I'll believe in it, until then I'm afraid to.
Please don't respond this, no offense, I just don't want to know what you think of how I feel.
For awhile Night was a topic of my blog, this is because it was so important to what we were learning and it made me think about a humans psychology a lot. Night seemed to be so powerful and so important to history, it is said that we are taught about genocide so that we never repeat it, but we have repeated it, over and over.
In the beginning I wrote what was assigned. Not much thought was put in it and I just wrote was expected, I did write some things that were important to me, such as my response to Just Kidding a and my trip to Ashland. These posts happened right before I got angry, in class we were supposed to respond to a girl about her thoughts on fashion and that got it started. Then became my reign of righteous, my thoughts were very crude and not thought out.
I started to notice how much things have changed. I'm realizing how much I hate having a blog. I feel like it is good to express one's self through writing, but I personally feel like all the wrong people are reading my blog. I know that I direct some of my writing to some people, but I know they can't read it. Then someone who doesn't know me reads it and takes it completely different than it is. I'm not sure how I would feel comfortable with blogging. If I could, I would be up front and dedicate my pieces to the person it is directed for, but I can. Usually it's about something illegal, wrong, they can get put in an institution, or it's just plain embarrassing. I wouldn't expose someone like that. If the person I wrote about reads the material they will know it's about them, but that is hardly ever the case.
They way I support myself through blogging is how I saw what is on my mind, but sensored. Like I'm going to do right now. All I want is to cry right now, but if I do the tears will be wasted. People keep doing what they do and they don't care who they hurt. It's just a fact of human nature, and growing older I see this more and more. I don't understand how someone can say, "I love you" and mean it, but actually has no love. This has repeatedly happened. Love is such a stupid concept. Some of the many definitions of love is: a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person,a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend, sexual passion or desire,a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart. So this covers most love we have been exposed to. Plato once said that humans were created with two arms, two legs, and two faces. When Zuse felt threatened he cut of one of the faces so humans would spend eternity looking for their other half. Plato never mentioned where Zuse placed this "other half". Did he destroy it or simply place it somewhere else? Even if love is found it only takes one moment to lose it. One moment out of millions. What if that other half was the one you were searching for? What if your other half was searching for someone else? What if your other half doesn't love or want to love you back. I don't understand why people continue to love if all it does is hurt in the end. Granted there are good times that make you feel on top of the world, and it is expected to fall in and out of love many many times in life, but if that love you feel is gone, there is just an empty space. Whether this was someone that died, a romantic partner, a parent, a friend, a spouse, family. It could be anyone, and it doesn't stop the hurt. It seems that if someone doesn't physically see your pain they don't see it at all.
I surprised myself with how much of myself I show. I am usually a enigma, no one actually knows anything. For some reason this doesn't apply anymore and it scares me. I don't want people knowing me or what goes on with me. I especially don't want people to know what I care about, because then they know how to hurt me. I feel like this is the greatest power anyone can have on another. This is how you determine real people from the fake ones. I've also realized how with blogging and the tenth grade curriculum how angry I am at people in general. I strongly dislike how we treat each other. There is absolutely no love between anyone. How the hell can anyone be so cold hearted? It seems every one in the world has this instinct to constantly look for love, crave it, go to great extents to get it, bitch about having it, and cry and hate when it's gone. It is a cycle repeated every day.
Overall I've come to realize how confused about love I am. I don't believe in it, yet I'm in it. I've only seen one example of true love and death departed them. I thought I saw ever lasting love until the man left. I see people hating each other but staying together because they have to. I see people loving each other but can't show it for one reason or another. I've see true love diminished by drugs over and over and over again. This is another reason I hate drugs, if you love at all, how can you put them trough this. On another day I'll feel love, in another life I'll believe in it, until then I'm afraid to.
Please don't respond this, no offense, I just don't want to know what you think of how I feel.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Night
The central conflict of Night was when Elie has his character set against himself. He was faced with many hardships he was forced to over come for survival.
On the first night Elie and his family entered the internment camp he saw many people he knew getting burned alive. He witnessed friends, parents, and all the innocent burning to death for a reason that Elie only vaguely understood. This was his first experience loss in religion, this greatly changed him, before his faith demolished he was very interested in learning more about Judaism. Unfortunately he was not the only one to have this reaction. Elie observed others in the crematory and stated, "Someone began to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I do not know if it has ever happened before, in the long history of Jews, that people have ever recited the prayer for the dead themselves." (31) I believe that Elie still concealed some of his faith deep with in, even after he saw the horrors personally. When he was only seven steps away from the fire he embraced death. He offered to electrocute himself so his Father wouldn't have to see him burn. After he was released he shared, "Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever" (32) I never found any evidence if Elie reclaimed his faith or not.
One unexpected high point in the story was when he met a woman. He never said if they had romantic relations but she instilled hope in him. After an intense, unneeded beating a woman Elie took notice in perviously came over to comfort him. She was thought to speek French but in perfect German she gave him words of hope and wisdom, "Bite your lip, little brother....don't cry. Keep your anger and hatred for another day, for later on. The day will come, but not now...Wait. Grit your teeth and wait..."(51) This was all it took, a few kind words. Later in his life Elie found her once again. He was in France and he saw her. "Facing me was a very beautiful woman with black hair and dreamy eyes. I had seen those eyes somewhere. It was she." (51) Though their correspondence in the book was brief I believe she had a large impact on Elie, especially if he remembered her after so many years.
After so much hardship Elie had to endure all he had was his Father. After weeks of sickness he finally was taken away from Elie forever. "I awoke January 29th at dawn. In my Father's place lay another invalid. They must have taken him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may have still breathing." (106) Elie had no idea if his Father was murdered by being burned alive or simply cremated. This shows yet another example of how the Nazi's took everything Elie had, including his entire family, he clothes, his golden crown (for his tooth), his valuables, his shoes, and the man who gave him life.
After the internment camp was liberated he was hospitalized for food poising. He realized it had been years since he saw his face in a reflection. After he found one he saw a corpse staring back at him, "The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, have never left me".
On the first night Elie and his family entered the internment camp he saw many people he knew getting burned alive. He witnessed friends, parents, and all the innocent burning to death for a reason that Elie only vaguely understood. This was his first experience loss in religion, this greatly changed him, before his faith demolished he was very interested in learning more about Judaism. Unfortunately he was not the only one to have this reaction. Elie observed others in the crematory and stated, "Someone began to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I do not know if it has ever happened before, in the long history of Jews, that people have ever recited the prayer for the dead themselves." (31) I believe that Elie still concealed some of his faith deep with in, even after he saw the horrors personally. When he was only seven steps away from the fire he embraced death. He offered to electrocute himself so his Father wouldn't have to see him burn. After he was released he shared, "Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever" (32) I never found any evidence if Elie reclaimed his faith or not.
One unexpected high point in the story was when he met a woman. He never said if they had romantic relations but she instilled hope in him. After an intense, unneeded beating a woman Elie took notice in perviously came over to comfort him. She was thought to speek French but in perfect German she gave him words of hope and wisdom, "Bite your lip, little brother....don't cry. Keep your anger and hatred for another day, for later on. The day will come, but not now...Wait. Grit your teeth and wait..."(51) This was all it took, a few kind words. Later in his life Elie found her once again. He was in France and he saw her. "Facing me was a very beautiful woman with black hair and dreamy eyes. I had seen those eyes somewhere. It was she." (51) Though their correspondence in the book was brief I believe she had a large impact on Elie, especially if he remembered her after so many years.
After so much hardship Elie had to endure all he had was his Father. After weeks of sickness he finally was taken away from Elie forever. "I awoke January 29th at dawn. In my Father's place lay another invalid. They must have taken him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may have still breathing." (106) Elie had no idea if his Father was murdered by being burned alive or simply cremated. This shows yet another example of how the Nazi's took everything Elie had, including his entire family, he clothes, his golden crown (for his tooth), his valuables, his shoes, and the man who gave him life.
After the internment camp was liberated he was hospitalized for food poising. He realized it had been years since he saw his face in a reflection. After he found one he saw a corpse staring back at him, "The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, have never left me".
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Response to "Night"
This is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. So far Elie has lost himself and his religion. Watching all the cruelties of the Gastapo and SS have forced a soulless body to become the boy once known as Elie to become prisoner A-7713. Throughout the book Elie has been left alone, even with his Father still near him, he feels hatred to his Father when he is attacked and beaten. He feels that his Father should have been smarter and avoided getting beat. I think his Father's beating had this effect because his Father was the only thing Elie had left, he had even lost a golden crowned tooth. Watching the only possession he had left get destroyed by crippling blows from an iron pipe.
Elie experience a friend's character change drastically. His friend Beadle, at first he was a stereotypical "class-clown" kind of person, but after the Nazis took him he changed. He and other deportees were told to dig a large hole, not to many questioned what was the motive for this job. After doing so they got in a line and prepared themselves to die. The men, women, and children were slaughtered in the same brutal fashion, the only exception were babies, they were used as shot targets. The only way Beadle survived was because he was only wounded in his leg, but he still had to fall in the pit of bodies and fake death. When he told stories of this the town thought he went mad because no one could be this inhumane. Sadly they were wrong, the Gastapo came a few weeks after Beadles escape.
Another experience Elie encounters is his loss in faith. In the beginning chapter he wants to go forth in a religious life but as soon as he saw the crematories and his friends and friends children get cremated he lost all hope in God. After a hanging with two adults and one little boy that everyone loved, known to Elie as and angel-faced boy, he hears a man behind him ask, "Where is God now?" and Elie mentally responds, "Where is he? Here he is--He is hanging here on this gallows..." This is when I feel Elie had lost all relationship with a higher power.
Elie experience a friend's character change drastically. His friend Beadle, at first he was a stereotypical "class-clown" kind of person, but after the Nazis took him he changed. He and other deportees were told to dig a large hole, not to many questioned what was the motive for this job. After doing so they got in a line and prepared themselves to die. The men, women, and children were slaughtered in the same brutal fashion, the only exception were babies, they were used as shot targets. The only way Beadle survived was because he was only wounded in his leg, but he still had to fall in the pit of bodies and fake death. When he told stories of this the town thought he went mad because no one could be this inhumane. Sadly they were wrong, the Gastapo came a few weeks after Beadles escape.
Another experience Elie encounters is his loss in faith. In the beginning chapter he wants to go forth in a religious life but as soon as he saw the crematories and his friends and friends children get cremated he lost all hope in God. After a hanging with two adults and one little boy that everyone loved, known to Elie as and angel-faced boy, he hears a man behind him ask, "Where is God now?" and Elie mentally responds, "Where is he? Here he is--He is hanging here on this gallows..." This is when I feel Elie had lost all relationship with a higher power.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Just a Day
I can feel my life unraveling and it's the strangest sensation I have ever experienced. I am probably just hormonal, but I can't help feeling that I have stopped having the power to control my life.
First of all, family drama is the worst out there. This is because you can never escape it. It's always there and there is nothing you can do about it. Everyone tells you "It's not you fault." That only makes me believe it is, the thought wasn't even in my mind until someone placed it there. I once heard a quote from the movie Fame:
"My theory is that when parents get divorced they’re given some kind of a handout
When my parents were splitting they told me 3 things
1. It’s not your fault
2. It’s not your fault and
3. It’s not your fault.
The problem is I don’t buy it. No kid does. I’ve seen the pictures of when you got married, when you were goodlooking and you smiled at each other, hell when you even just looked at each other so what happened between then and now? ME
I came along and I made you tired and cranky and anxious and I made you lose your hair and gain 20 extra pounds and somewhere in all of that you stopped loving each other.
So I have my own idea for a handout. Next time tell me
1. Happiness is hard
2. Don’t make the same mistakes that we did
And 3. Ok so maybe it is your fault a little
You want me to be honest, you go first"
Who ever wrote this poem couldn’t be more right, except for the fact there is no hand out, how could there possibly be a handout for life and even if there was, do you actually think many people would read it? I know for a fact I wouldn't. The second thing they got wrong is number three. If I was never created I honestly doubt you hate each other as much as you do. I know I have been a handful ever since I was born. I was loud, energetic, crazy, exuberant, a major trouble maker, everything a toddler should be, I just didn’t grow out of it. I did mature and gain responsibility that comes with age but I stayed a trouble maker. I was really good at being bad.
Thats another thing that is making me crazy. Drugs. Why do people do them? If they claim to be happy then why would they do it? Drugs destroyed me and my body took the toll. I do admit it was hard to realize how skinny I was because of how short I am, but I recently found out that I was the size of an anorexic person. I wouldn't eat for days, I was an athlete so it made advancing in ballet much harder. I'm so scared that the people I love who continued doing drugs will turn into who I was, or have it take over their lives. I really love all the people I chose to have any type of relationship with, and anything that is socially considered bad that they do worries me. I understand that I have very strong feeling about this topic that I suppress because I want them to stop on their own time and not stop because I asked them to. I do this so they will have their own reasons, not mine. But thats what I worry about at the end of the day, that I could have stopped them and I didn't and their life is worse for it.
You'll get trough this, then you can forget the past and look towards the future. I hate this phrase so much it's ridiculous. I admit it is a good way to look at things, but it is so annoying to hear. Looking past your current problems, forgetting them and looking towards a brighter future is near impossible. How can one escape their past? Thats how they became the person they are today and if it was rocky, there is just no way anyone could forget it.
I know someday things will be all right and hopefully my family drama will die down and the people I love will stop harming themselves. I know this wont be anytime soon, but I need to make it through on my own terms and just take my days moment by moment so I can bare them. Knowing that each bad day is followed by a better one is a comfort.
First of all, family drama is the worst out there. This is because you can never escape it. It's always there and there is nothing you can do about it. Everyone tells you "It's not you fault." That only makes me believe it is, the thought wasn't even in my mind until someone placed it there. I once heard a quote from the movie Fame:
"My theory is that when parents get divorced they’re given some kind of a handout
When my parents were splitting they told me 3 things
1. It’s not your fault
2. It’s not your fault and
3. It’s not your fault.
The problem is I don’t buy it. No kid does. I’ve seen the pictures of when you got married, when you were goodlooking and you smiled at each other, hell when you even just looked at each other so what happened between then and now? ME
I came along and I made you tired and cranky and anxious and I made you lose your hair and gain 20 extra pounds and somewhere in all of that you stopped loving each other.
So I have my own idea for a handout. Next time tell me
1. Happiness is hard
2. Don’t make the same mistakes that we did
And 3. Ok so maybe it is your fault a little
You want me to be honest, you go first"
Who ever wrote this poem couldn’t be more right, except for the fact there is no hand out, how could there possibly be a handout for life and even if there was, do you actually think many people would read it? I know for a fact I wouldn't. The second thing they got wrong is number three. If I was never created I honestly doubt you hate each other as much as you do. I know I have been a handful ever since I was born. I was loud, energetic, crazy, exuberant, a major trouble maker, everything a toddler should be, I just didn’t grow out of it. I did mature and gain responsibility that comes with age but I stayed a trouble maker. I was really good at being bad.
Thats another thing that is making me crazy. Drugs. Why do people do them? If they claim to be happy then why would they do it? Drugs destroyed me and my body took the toll. I do admit it was hard to realize how skinny I was because of how short I am, but I recently found out that I was the size of an anorexic person. I wouldn't eat for days, I was an athlete so it made advancing in ballet much harder. I'm so scared that the people I love who continued doing drugs will turn into who I was, or have it take over their lives. I really love all the people I chose to have any type of relationship with, and anything that is socially considered bad that they do worries me. I understand that I have very strong feeling about this topic that I suppress because I want them to stop on their own time and not stop because I asked them to. I do this so they will have their own reasons, not mine. But thats what I worry about at the end of the day, that I could have stopped them and I didn't and their life is worse for it.
You'll get trough this, then you can forget the past and look towards the future. I hate this phrase so much it's ridiculous. I admit it is a good way to look at things, but it is so annoying to hear. Looking past your current problems, forgetting them and looking towards a brighter future is near impossible. How can one escape their past? Thats how they became the person they are today and if it was rocky, there is just no way anyone could forget it.
I know someday things will be all right and hopefully my family drama will die down and the people I love will stop harming themselves. I know this wont be anytime soon, but I need to make it through on my own terms and just take my days moment by moment so I can bare them. Knowing that each bad day is followed by a better one is a comfort.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Response To "A Difference in Life & School"
I agree with Cameron, with age comes responsibility. He discusses how it is difficult to manage his time and how school is starting to get harder. I know exactly how he feels. I am trying to get my life as an adult started while I am juggling school, dance and a diminishing social life. I don't necessarily miss my social life, aside from the fact I can't really keep it alive because I'm just to busy for it, and I do still talk to the people I care about, but I can't help missing my freedom. I think that is the hardest transition between childhood and adulthood. From a very young age most everyone knows that sometime in their lives they will have to experience responsibility and figure out how they want to live their lives.
That is probably one of the hardest things in life, figuring out how one is to live their life. At this stage in my life I'm thinking about what college I want to go to and how I'm going to get there. I never could have imagined how many factors go into deciding what road I want to take in life. I kind of feel how Cameron does when he said, "To me it felt like I was sailing through it with out any obstacles in my way. All of a sudden, I am realizing that life is not so simple. As I am getting older, I am realizing the responsibilities I have are way more serious. No one is here to tell me to do my homework, or to make sure that I study for my tests...At first, I felt like ASTI was a walk in the park...Now things are kicking into gear and finally getting interesting."
I'm kind of worried about my future, not because I think I'm going to fail in life or something I'm just worried for all the choices I will have to make. I know that it's a part of life to make mistakes and learn from them, but how will I know which mistakes are irreversible and which ones will be okay to make? I'm not afraid of the irreversible ones but it has to have some affect on the out come of my life. I am kind afraid of what my future holds because I have no idea what to expect, but I am excited to get my life started as an independent adult.
That is probably one of the hardest things in life, figuring out how one is to live their life. At this stage in my life I'm thinking about what college I want to go to and how I'm going to get there. I never could have imagined how many factors go into deciding what road I want to take in life. I kind of feel how Cameron does when he said, "To me it felt like I was sailing through it with out any obstacles in my way. All of a sudden, I am realizing that life is not so simple. As I am getting older, I am realizing the responsibilities I have are way more serious. No one is here to tell me to do my homework, or to make sure that I study for my tests...At first, I felt like ASTI was a walk in the park...Now things are kicking into gear and finally getting interesting."
I'm kind of worried about my future, not because I think I'm going to fail in life or something I'm just worried for all the choices I will have to make. I know that it's a part of life to make mistakes and learn from them, but how will I know which mistakes are irreversible and which ones will be okay to make? I'm not afraid of the irreversible ones but it has to have some affect on the out come of my life. I am kind afraid of what my future holds because I have no idea what to expect, but I am excited to get my life started as an independent adult.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Self Abuse
Nothing good can come from self abuse. Most people think that it only hurts them as individuals because it is physical pain that they endure, but they cannot be more wrong. It hurts everyone that loves them. Every time a friend that is doing this I can't stand it. Knowing their lives are to hard for them to handle they express it through injury.
Many people associate self abuse with cutting or being "emo" but in reality it can be a number of things: burning, piercing, tattooing, scarification, bruising, drug use..etc. I understand the need to relieve internal pain that seems as if it could never be dealt with, but when it comes to constant bleeding, and happening very often, it hurts me just as much as it is hurting them.
I know I can't just sit by and watch people I love with razor in hand, bleeding. I try to make them feel loved and make sure they know I will always be there, but...it doesn't work. They keep cutting and burning.
I know that I am pretty emotional because of recent events in my life, but I can't help the sensation of getting choked up over the whole ordeal. To the person this is to, I love you, please stop. It's not worth it, all it leads to is muscle damage and scaring. I know I have a past too but if I have left every bit of the negativity behind and so can you. I can't stress how much I love you. You are with out a doubt my best friend and I can't stand to see you in so much pain. You know for a fact that you are the only person I have ever met that has been with me through every hardship that has been dealt to me and you have seen past all my bullshit and still stuck by me. If you can't find any motivation to stop please try, I know you are going through hardships and thank you so much for not turning to drugs or alcohol but self abuse in no better. I know you will be angry that I posted this online, but this is the only way I can get you to listen to me. I love you, I don't know how I can stress that anymore.
Many people associate self abuse with cutting or being "emo" but in reality it can be a number of things: burning, piercing, tattooing, scarification, bruising, drug use..etc. I understand the need to relieve internal pain that seems as if it could never be dealt with, but when it comes to constant bleeding, and happening very often, it hurts me just as much as it is hurting them.
I know I can't just sit by and watch people I love with razor in hand, bleeding. I try to make them feel loved and make sure they know I will always be there, but...it doesn't work. They keep cutting and burning.
I know that I am pretty emotional because of recent events in my life, but I can't help the sensation of getting choked up over the whole ordeal. To the person this is to, I love you, please stop. It's not worth it, all it leads to is muscle damage and scaring. I know I have a past too but if I have left every bit of the negativity behind and so can you. I can't stress how much I love you. You are with out a doubt my best friend and I can't stand to see you in so much pain. You know for a fact that you are the only person I have ever met that has been with me through every hardship that has been dealt to me and you have seen past all my bullshit and still stuck by me. If you can't find any motivation to stop please try, I know you are going through hardships and thank you so much for not turning to drugs or alcohol but self abuse in no better. I know you will be angry that I posted this online, but this is the only way I can get you to listen to me. I love you, I don't know how I can stress that anymore.
Q and his Insecurities
Q often molds himself to others standards and expectations, therefore a very strong characteristic Q hold is his insecurity.
The extinction of dinosaurs greatly effected Q, aside from the fact he was left to be the only one left of his kind, it also made him very cautious and untrusting. "I would have never imagined it possible to talk like that with nondinosaurs, and I was tense and mostly silent." (page 98) Q's distrust lies mainly with the evolved creatures, commonly know as the "New Ones". There are the creatures that he was conversing with in the pervious quote. Not only is Q a very insecure creature in general but also being the last one of his kind probably brings out emotions such as: why am I not like anyone else, what is wrong with me, and to a greater extent why me? All of these conflicting emotions lead to Q's demise later seen in the story "The Dinosaurs". Another trait Q acquired is his survival mechanisms. He first notes the "New Ones" mannerisms and stays quiet to insure not saying something that would displease them. He is very careful and remains tense through out the conversation to not say something that would displease them and creating conflict between the two species. Adapting to to what he has observed he actually convinces the "New Ones" that he is one of them, just ugly. After he is accepted into the New One's culture he is deemed the "Ugly One" and becomes an important figure in their community. All except for Zhan who discriminates against Q for being an outsider.
Another personality trait Q naturally has is how polite he is. In the story The Dinosaurs Q has a new love or romantic partner, Fern-flower. One night they were walking and discussing one of her many dreams when Q tells the audience about their relationship, "[It was] Nothing to intimate: I had never dared touch her.." (page 101) I was wondering id this was Q's natural response or if he was raised in this manner. In the story The Aquatic Uncle there was no evidence to suport this hypothesis on his bringing up, I also had another theory of his fear of being rejected. Maybe the reason Q was so quiet and polite was actually because he was afraid of getting rejected which would also be in tandem with his insecurities, looking even deeper into Q's psychological mind set her could also be afraid of someone being intimate with him because to feel love and have it taken away-like how it was in The Aquatic Uncle- would be unbearable.
The last dominant personality trait Q displays in The Dinosaurs is his tendency of being bipolar. In the scene where Q and Fern-flower were talking about another one of her dreams. In this dream Fern-flower watches a dinosaur acting foolish playing with his tail and being "ridiculous" but when she says that the dinosaur "cried a river of tears from his yellow and red eyes" he lost his temper. His response was: "I had a burst of pride; I stiffened and hurled a few contemptuous phrases in her face, 'Why fo you bore me with theses dreams of yours?...You can't dream of anything but sentimental nonsense!'". He displays these angry emotions because he feels that Fern-flower is seeing what he is so desperately trying to hide thorough her dreams-Q could also be showing signs of paranoia. I feel that because of all of Q's insecurities and "differences" from what he wants to be, he predominately shows anger in his defensive mechanisms if he cannot control what others see in him.
The extinction of dinosaurs greatly effected Q, aside from the fact he was left to be the only one left of his kind, it also made him very cautious and untrusting. "I would have never imagined it possible to talk like that with nondinosaurs, and I was tense and mostly silent." (page 98) Q's distrust lies mainly with the evolved creatures, commonly know as the "New Ones". There are the creatures that he was conversing with in the pervious quote. Not only is Q a very insecure creature in general but also being the last one of his kind probably brings out emotions such as: why am I not like anyone else, what is wrong with me, and to a greater extent why me? All of these conflicting emotions lead to Q's demise later seen in the story "The Dinosaurs". Another trait Q acquired is his survival mechanisms. He first notes the "New Ones" mannerisms and stays quiet to insure not saying something that would displease them. He is very careful and remains tense through out the conversation to not say something that would displease them and creating conflict between the two species. Adapting to to what he has observed he actually convinces the "New Ones" that he is one of them, just ugly. After he is accepted into the New One's culture he is deemed the "Ugly One" and becomes an important figure in their community. All except for Zhan who discriminates against Q for being an outsider.
Another personality trait Q naturally has is how polite he is. In the story The Dinosaurs Q has a new love or romantic partner, Fern-flower. One night they were walking and discussing one of her many dreams when Q tells the audience about their relationship, "[It was] Nothing to intimate: I had never dared touch her.." (page 101) I was wondering id this was Q's natural response or if he was raised in this manner. In the story The Aquatic Uncle there was no evidence to suport this hypothesis on his bringing up, I also had another theory of his fear of being rejected. Maybe the reason Q was so quiet and polite was actually because he was afraid of getting rejected which would also be in tandem with his insecurities, looking even deeper into Q's psychological mind set her could also be afraid of someone being intimate with him because to feel love and have it taken away-like how it was in The Aquatic Uncle- would be unbearable.
The last dominant personality trait Q displays in The Dinosaurs is his tendency of being bipolar. In the scene where Q and Fern-flower were talking about another one of her dreams. In this dream Fern-flower watches a dinosaur acting foolish playing with his tail and being "ridiculous" but when she says that the dinosaur "cried a river of tears from his yellow and red eyes" he lost his temper. His response was: "I had a burst of pride; I stiffened and hurled a few contemptuous phrases in her face, 'Why fo you bore me with theses dreams of yours?...You can't dream of anything but sentimental nonsense!'". He displays these angry emotions because he feels that Fern-flower is seeing what he is so desperately trying to hide thorough her dreams-Q could also be showing signs of paranoia. I feel that because of all of Q's insecurities and "differences" from what he wants to be, he predominately shows anger in his defensive mechanisms if he cannot control what others see in him.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Rebuttal
Mr. Sutherland,
Vanessa and I clearly winged it and weren't prepared but we did hold our own and made it through multiple rounds of debate. If you would like, we can show you the notes we took during the debate.
Vanessa and I clearly winged it and weren't prepared but we did hold our own and made it through multiple rounds of debate. If you would like, we can show you the notes we took during the debate.
Kissing
My question to the world is why is kissing such a big deal? I have been wondering this for quite some time. Ever since kissing has been introduced to my generation, people have made a very big deal of it.
The definition of kissing is: to touch or press with the lips slightly pursed, and then often to part them and to emit a smacking sound, in an expression of affection, love, greeting, reverence, etc. Still, I don't see why this is so important is social society.
I also wonder why it is supposed to be suppressed if the interaction is longer than a brief kiss, possibly symbolizing mutual respect. Once I saw a couple, who were clearly in love, making out. My Granny pulled me away and said, "....I can't believe they were doing that in public." I wonder why this is. If sexual attraction is a natural emotion why try to hide it?
To a greater extent I wonder why sex is such an intimate interaction. Sex is alleged to be the bonding between two people who love each other more than life it's self. What about when you hit college? In college all you are expected to do is have sex and party (speaking in a social setting). What happens when you get into your senior years? Do you still have sex then?
Any form of sexual interaction can be bought, sold and acquired. For instance, at a club one can hook up, at a brothel one can pay for sex or a "good time", anywhere one goes there is sex sounding them. Why is our culture so dependent on sex selling things and making people feel good about themselves. Another question; Why do we sell sex, sexual content and sex appeal but are not okay with others having sexual intercourse?
For clarification I am not saying to never have sex or kiss and I am not telling anyone to walk around naked waiting for sexual interactions. I am just wondering why everything is such a big deal.
The definition of kissing is: to touch or press with the lips slightly pursed, and then often to part them and to emit a smacking sound, in an expression of affection, love, greeting, reverence, etc. Still, I don't see why this is so important is social society.
I also wonder why it is supposed to be suppressed if the interaction is longer than a brief kiss, possibly symbolizing mutual respect. Once I saw a couple, who were clearly in love, making out. My Granny pulled me away and said, "....I can't believe they were doing that in public." I wonder why this is. If sexual attraction is a natural emotion why try to hide it?
To a greater extent I wonder why sex is such an intimate interaction. Sex is alleged to be the bonding between two people who love each other more than life it's self. What about when you hit college? In college all you are expected to do is have sex and party (speaking in a social setting). What happens when you get into your senior years? Do you still have sex then?
Any form of sexual interaction can be bought, sold and acquired. For instance, at a club one can hook up, at a brothel one can pay for sex or a "good time", anywhere one goes there is sex sounding them. Why is our culture so dependent on sex selling things and making people feel good about themselves. Another question; Why do we sell sex, sexual content and sex appeal but are not okay with others having sexual intercourse?
For clarification I am not saying to never have sex or kiss and I am not telling anyone to walk around naked waiting for sexual interactions. I am just wondering why everything is such a big deal.
Response: "People are so Stupid, It makes me Sick"
Response to Rokhsor
What I really like about Rokhsor's post is the title, "People are so stupid, It makes me sick". I also really liked how she admitted to her own flaws. She also stated how being judgmental is extremely immature. I agree with this, having notions prior to actually knowing someone is completely ignorant.
At first when I read this blog I thought she was going to talk about how people can be so stupid in their actions. In a sense this is what she discussed, but what my main concerns in the newly found stupidity of people is not how ignorant the are but the entire sociological make of peoples actions. I want to know why people do what they do, and the reasons they do it.
My take on Rokhsor's thoughts go in tandem with mine for how angry we both are. She is angry about how ignorant people can be and how often they judge others while mine is more along the lines of how people can be so immature, so stupid and hurtful and they don't even realize it. I don't know what ignorance she has been exposed to but I still know what she is talking about.
The stupidity I have recently been exposed to is selfishness and unawareness . I don't understand how a person can be so oblivious to anyone else. Discovering individuals take on the world is completely fascinating to me, especially how it varies between each person.
I don't want to go off on a physiological conquest because there are too many people to analyze and not all of them can be tolerated. Some are born the way they are while others have their environments influence them, most people are a combination of each. Even being born the way one is doesn't define who they will be.
When people are so stupid and ignorant it actually makes me sad to see someone so closed minded. I don't want to change who they are I just want them to understand and see the world for how it is, not the contorted one they see.
What I really like about Rokhsor's post is the title, "People are so stupid, It makes me sick". I also really liked how she admitted to her own flaws. She also stated how being judgmental is extremely immature. I agree with this, having notions prior to actually knowing someone is completely ignorant.
At first when I read this blog I thought she was going to talk about how people can be so stupid in their actions. In a sense this is what she discussed, but what my main concerns in the newly found stupidity of people is not how ignorant the are but the entire sociological make of peoples actions. I want to know why people do what they do, and the reasons they do it.
My take on Rokhsor's thoughts go in tandem with mine for how angry we both are. She is angry about how ignorant people can be and how often they judge others while mine is more along the lines of how people can be so immature, so stupid and hurtful and they don't even realize it. I don't know what ignorance she has been exposed to but I still know what she is talking about.
The stupidity I have recently been exposed to is selfishness and unawareness . I don't understand how a person can be so oblivious to anyone else. Discovering individuals take on the world is completely fascinating to me, especially how it varies between each person.
I don't want to go off on a physiological conquest because there are too many people to analyze and not all of them can be tolerated. Some are born the way they are while others have their environments influence them, most people are a combination of each. Even being born the way one is doesn't define who they will be.
When people are so stupid and ignorant it actually makes me sad to see someone so closed minded. I don't want to change who they are I just want them to understand and see the world for how it is, not the contorted one they see.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Vocab. Words
aggregate
hierarchical
empirical
differentiation
whereby
allocation
acquisition
whereas
regime
acquisition
hierarchical
empirical
differentiation
whereby
allocation
acquisition
whereas
regime
acquisition
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Fashion Response
Aleah's ideas on fashions:
I do not necessarily agree with everything Aleah had said, I also had trouble understanding some of her diction. I do not like how in her passage she discusses how individual styles can translate into race. I fully understand that race is a large factor in todays society, but never the less it the one who changes this dynamic will be evolutionary and change how society currently views other cultures and individuals. The style Aleah mainly talked about was rap culture vs. what is considered a Southern California skater style. She also discussed how race was a factor in how you can dress, I strongly disagree with this statement because no matter what your physical appearance is it should have no effect on what you put on your body.
Everyone has their own personal style and everyone has a different ethnic mix so to an extent it should have no effect on how one may dress. Also there are so many variables to what is considered race, there is: ethnicity, heritage, nationality, skin tone, physical appearance, who one is as an individual, how they act, where they came from..etc. For some reason people are so hell bent on judging others by what we see that we forget the meaning of diversity. Personally, I have been colorblind to this situation for quite sometime (in the sense where I am blind to the color of peoples skin and the stereotypes that follow), I am not saying I do not ever see color but I see it in a different way than most others do.
I do not see why others cannot see past the exterior of an individual. Diversity is beautiful thing and noticing differences is not wrong either, but when that is all someone notices it is unjust to anyone. Taking away peoples humanities purely biased on stereotypes is not an accurate source of getting to know an individual. It takes years to build up an proclaimed reputation and only a moment to destroy it. A lot of this destruction is due to what individuals assume and what they see. People who do not fit into the comfort zone of what is considered "acceptable" and do not follow the regiem in their culture they are hunted and anything and everything is used against an individual of this standard.
Also, in Aleah's passage she only discusses male fashions, it may be a very relavent example but it is not the only controversy in fashion. There is how women dress and how individuals are treated if the choose to wear what is to be considered the "other genders" attire. She also only discussed white people vs. black people. Those may be common ones used for a generalization of many races but even with just categorizing "white and black" there are so many places these individuals can come from. Race and culture is world wide, not just confined to The United States of America.
As an individual one can choose to be blind to topics such as this. One may not choose the environment they are raised in, what surroundings you encounter or even what your race is, but you can always choose who you are as a person and no one is telling you how to treat another human being. It is all a choice that each individual is entitled to make.
I do not necessarily agree with everything Aleah had said, I also had trouble understanding some of her diction. I do not like how in her passage she discusses how individual styles can translate into race. I fully understand that race is a large factor in todays society, but never the less it the one who changes this dynamic will be evolutionary and change how society currently views other cultures and individuals. The style Aleah mainly talked about was rap culture vs. what is considered a Southern California skater style. She also discussed how race was a factor in how you can dress, I strongly disagree with this statement because no matter what your physical appearance is it should have no effect on what you put on your body.
Everyone has their own personal style and everyone has a different ethnic mix so to an extent it should have no effect on how one may dress. Also there are so many variables to what is considered race, there is: ethnicity, heritage, nationality, skin tone, physical appearance, who one is as an individual, how they act, where they came from..etc. For some reason people are so hell bent on judging others by what we see that we forget the meaning of diversity. Personally, I have been colorblind to this situation for quite sometime (in the sense where I am blind to the color of peoples skin and the stereotypes that follow), I am not saying I do not ever see color but I see it in a different way than most others do.
I do not see why others cannot see past the exterior of an individual. Diversity is beautiful thing and noticing differences is not wrong either, but when that is all someone notices it is unjust to anyone. Taking away peoples humanities purely biased on stereotypes is not an accurate source of getting to know an individual. It takes years to build up an proclaimed reputation and only a moment to destroy it. A lot of this destruction is due to what individuals assume and what they see. People who do not fit into the comfort zone of what is considered "acceptable" and do not follow the regiem in their culture they are hunted and anything and everything is used against an individual of this standard.
Also, in Aleah's passage she only discusses male fashions, it may be a very relavent example but it is not the only controversy in fashion. There is how women dress and how individuals are treated if the choose to wear what is to be considered the "other genders" attire. She also only discussed white people vs. black people. Those may be common ones used for a generalization of many races but even with just categorizing "white and black" there are so many places these individuals can come from. Race and culture is world wide, not just confined to The United States of America.
As an individual one can choose to be blind to topics such as this. One may not choose the environment they are raised in, what surroundings you encounter or even what your race is, but you can always choose who you are as a person and no one is telling you how to treat another human being. It is all a choice that each individual is entitled to make.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Nathan Brigham Markovich and Harbor Engle
Nathan and Harbor are two very near and dear people to me. Not only are they helping me with homework by giving me ideas but they are some pretty cool cats.
These two live in Ashland. A small town that isn't actually that small. Nathan took my friend
Kayla and I on an adventure to find Harbor. This consisted of three hours....
First Kayla and I were forced into eating a very unhealthy meal with my father, some joy that was. Then Kayla and I left to meet our friend Nathan who is the coolest of all the cats. This walk was unusually long but nice never the less. After dancing into a few trees and looking foolish in front of many, many people we found Nathan, then began our adventures.
First we went to some local stores scattered throughout Main Street. Then we walked, and walked, and walked and walked for another few hours after that. There was a bit of running through sprinklers, attempting hitch-hiking, mild nudity, and a lot of giving up but in the end, we found a storage facility that was grey with strange, stone gargoyles where a band practice was allegedly being held.
At this point I had given up, so I sat under a spick-it and let it run. After it was turned off, I sat wallowing in the puddle I had made, then a woman stomped by. I'm almost positive she thought I peed on myself. Not that I cared, I was tired and wanted to stop walking. Then we realized we were lost, again. Nathan called his friend, Dakota, and attempted to find where their band practice was. Thank God Dakota found us, Kayla and I were just done with life. Actually Dakota whistled and we found him....Anyway, Dakota's a beast. He showed us where to go, and then we met up with Ben. Ben is such a sweety even though he doesn't like the word "hella", he also is much more than just another tall guy. All of a sudden this tall blonde guy walks up and just hugs us as if we knew him our entire lives. Thats Harbor, I know he would like to be know as the sexy beast, therefore he will be. Someday he will rule the world, when that day comes I hope to hell we will be best friends. I think Dresden is the next one to come. This boy has the most amazing hair in existence, he just came bobbing along and the only word I can use to describe him is ba-bam, because that is just how he appears in a room. Then Chris came along, my first impression of Chris is hearing a skateboard behind me, feeling it zoom by me and watching some guy fly off of it and land very hard and began rolling on the cement. He's a good guy though, very funny and quite an interesting fellow.
They played, we listened, we all went to Taco Bell, they got food, we sat, they did something, we did something, it was fun though. Then we all went back to hear their band practice again. They played, we listened, they played, Dresden sang, we texted each other because we couldn't hear each other talk, Harbor played the bass, Kayla and I attempted giving Nathan corn-rows, Chris played drums while listening to his ipod (I still don't understand the logistics of that), we did stuff, they did stuff, we all did stuff. Then Nathans dad picked us up. Harbor and Dresden ditched us to go do something and we all piled into Nathan's dad's car. We sat in the car, Nathan's dad drove the car, we were all in the car. Driving. Then we got to Nathan's house.
This house is beyond gorgeous, everything about it is magnificent. It's just amazing. Even the bathroom is, I mean Kayla and I were just chillin' in there checking it out. It's strange to see a house that is so wondrous. Nathan even has a pool, which I am contemplating jumping in to off the roof. He also has sheep, and apparently a dirt bike which I have yet to find, and if it is there I will possibly ride it, for a very extended amount of time.
They hottubed, I pooled..alone....then I hottubed with them, then some pooled while others hottubed, and Chris and Kayla water-mountaineered, which is extremely entertaining if done correctly, we played 10-fingers which is never entertaining unless done very well. Stuff happened, I talked to Nathan's parents, more stuff happened, Ben got squirted in the face, we got pruney, we got out, I took over Nathan's bed, they ate food, Kayla drank water, Dakota took one bite of random foods and put the food back, I drank water, Nathan did not drink any coconut juice (or milk) at all.
After 9:00 we went to the front of Chris' house and left to go to Dakota's house. Then we left Dakota's house and found a cat, the we began walking again. So we walked, again to Main Street, again, and sat down somewhere. I wanted to hold someones hand and Kayla completely ditched me and Nathan came to my aid and held my hand, then Chris held my hand too, then Chris ditched me, and all the guys were walking quickly, except for Nathan because he was holding my hand and Kayla because she's a woman.
We walked, they walked, we complained, they slowed down, we didn't do anything about it. More of this kind of thing continued for the majority of the night. Then we sat down, and got back up and sat somewhere else. Then we talked, then Ben, Kayla and I went to go find my dad. He wasn't there, so we sat, and talked, and sat. Then we found my dad. Since Ben didn't have a place to sleep it had been assumed that he would sleep with Kayla and me. What we didn't know is my dad thought he was homeless and we met him five minuets before we met my dad and thought he was cute so we wanted him to spend the night. Ben is not in fact not homeless, but whenever I am around him he ends up not having a place to sleep, poor guy.
So we all said our goodbyes, then we slept. Then we woke up the next day and it was my birthday, but that birthday was crap so I refuse to recall any bit of it.
These two live in Ashland. A small town that isn't actually that small. Nathan took my friend
Kayla and I on an adventure to find Harbor. This consisted of three hours....
First Kayla and I were forced into eating a very unhealthy meal with my father, some joy that was. Then Kayla and I left to meet our friend Nathan who is the coolest of all the cats. This walk was unusually long but nice never the less. After dancing into a few trees and looking foolish in front of many, many people we found Nathan, then began our adventures.
First we went to some local stores scattered throughout Main Street. Then we walked, and walked, and walked and walked for another few hours after that. There was a bit of running through sprinklers, attempting hitch-hiking, mild nudity, and a lot of giving up but in the end, we found a storage facility that was grey with strange, stone gargoyles where a band practice was allegedly being held.
At this point I had given up, so I sat under a spick-it and let it run. After it was turned off, I sat wallowing in the puddle I had made, then a woman stomped by. I'm almost positive she thought I peed on myself. Not that I cared, I was tired and wanted to stop walking. Then we realized we were lost, again. Nathan called his friend, Dakota, and attempted to find where their band practice was. Thank God Dakota found us, Kayla and I were just done with life. Actually Dakota whistled and we found him....Anyway, Dakota's a beast. He showed us where to go, and then we met up with Ben. Ben is such a sweety even though he doesn't like the word "hella", he also is much more than just another tall guy. All of a sudden this tall blonde guy walks up and just hugs us as if we knew him our entire lives. Thats Harbor, I know he would like to be know as the sexy beast, therefore he will be. Someday he will rule the world, when that day comes I hope to hell we will be best friends. I think Dresden is the next one to come. This boy has the most amazing hair in existence, he just came bobbing along and the only word I can use to describe him is ba-bam, because that is just how he appears in a room. Then Chris came along, my first impression of Chris is hearing a skateboard behind me, feeling it zoom by me and watching some guy fly off of it and land very hard and began rolling on the cement. He's a good guy though, very funny and quite an interesting fellow.
They played, we listened, we all went to Taco Bell, they got food, we sat, they did something, we did something, it was fun though. Then we all went back to hear their band practice again. They played, we listened, they played, Dresden sang, we texted each other because we couldn't hear each other talk, Harbor played the bass, Kayla and I attempted giving Nathan corn-rows, Chris played drums while listening to his ipod (I still don't understand the logistics of that), we did stuff, they did stuff, we all did stuff. Then Nathans dad picked us up. Harbor and Dresden ditched us to go do something and we all piled into Nathan's dad's car. We sat in the car, Nathan's dad drove the car, we were all in the car. Driving. Then we got to Nathan's house.
This house is beyond gorgeous, everything about it is magnificent. It's just amazing. Even the bathroom is, I mean Kayla and I were just chillin' in there checking it out. It's strange to see a house that is so wondrous. Nathan even has a pool, which I am contemplating jumping in to off the roof. He also has sheep, and apparently a dirt bike which I have yet to find, and if it is there I will possibly ride it, for a very extended amount of time.
They hottubed, I pooled..alone....then I hottubed with them, then some pooled while others hottubed, and Chris and Kayla water-mountaineered, which is extremely entertaining if done correctly, we played 10-fingers which is never entertaining unless done very well. Stuff happened, I talked to Nathan's parents, more stuff happened, Ben got squirted in the face, we got pruney, we got out, I took over Nathan's bed, they ate food, Kayla drank water, Dakota took one bite of random foods and put the food back, I drank water, Nathan did not drink any coconut juice (or milk) at all.
After 9:00 we went to the front of Chris' house and left to go to Dakota's house. Then we left Dakota's house and found a cat, the we began walking again. So we walked, again to Main Street, again, and sat down somewhere. I wanted to hold someones hand and Kayla completely ditched me and Nathan came to my aid and held my hand, then Chris held my hand too, then Chris ditched me, and all the guys were walking quickly, except for Nathan because he was holding my hand and Kayla because she's a woman.
We walked, they walked, we complained, they slowed down, we didn't do anything about it. More of this kind of thing continued for the majority of the night. Then we sat down, and got back up and sat somewhere else. Then we talked, then Ben, Kayla and I went to go find my dad. He wasn't there, so we sat, and talked, and sat. Then we found my dad. Since Ben didn't have a place to sleep it had been assumed that he would sleep with Kayla and me. What we didn't know is my dad thought he was homeless and we met him five minuets before we met my dad and thought he was cute so we wanted him to spend the night. Ben is not in fact not homeless, but whenever I am around him he ends up not having a place to sleep, poor guy.
So we all said our goodbyes, then we slept. Then we woke up the next day and it was my birthday, but that birthday was crap so I refuse to recall any bit of it.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Opening Speech
Opening Statements
Prostitution is violent and cruel at some points. It is way of degrading women because it abuses women's rights and violates their bodies. Any form of prostitution is having power over women.It makes women feel bought and sold and that they are only property to the people who pay for their services. Not only does it come with violence and abuse but also leads to disease and unwanted side effects such as pregnancy.
Prostitution is devastation to the human soul it permanently scars a human being from the brutality that comes from being involved in the life of prostitution.
rape: 70-95% of women were physically assaulted and 68 met the criteria for post traumatic stress disorder because of the abuse and 60-75% were raped. Some women were kidnapped and drugs were forced into their bodies causing addiction and were bought and sold into the sex-trade. Because of their addiction, they became enslaved and were forced to perform forms of pleasure against their will .
“The people who defend prostitution and pornography want you to feel a kinky little thrill every time you think of something being stuck in a woman.” even if a person is not out there soliciting sex from women, they are still always aware of what is going on out in the world of prostitution. they defend prostitution because they do not think that anything is wrong with this. they feel as if the thought of women performing sex is ‘kinky’ and that it is just a way of life. although some people have a mind-set on this topic, others feel as if this is repulsive.
Prostitution is violent and cruel at some points. It is way of degrading women because it abuses women's rights and violates their bodies. Any form of prostitution is having power over women.It makes women feel bought and sold and that they are only property to the people who pay for their services. Not only does it come with violence and abuse but also leads to disease and unwanted side effects such as pregnancy.
Prostitution is devastation to the human soul it permanently scars a human being from the brutality that comes from being involved in the life of prostitution.
rape: 70-95% of women were physically assaulted and 68 met the criteria for post traumatic stress disorder because of the abuse and 60-75% were raped. Some women were kidnapped and drugs were forced into their bodies causing addiction and were bought and sold into the sex-trade. Because of their addiction, they became enslaved and were forced to perform forms of pleasure against their will .
“The people who defend prostitution and pornography want you to feel a kinky little thrill every time you think of something being stuck in a woman.” even if a person is not out there soliciting sex from women, they are still always aware of what is going on out in the world of prostitution. they defend prostitution because they do not think that anything is wrong with this. they feel as if the thought of women performing sex is ‘kinky’ and that it is just a way of life. although some people have a mind-set on this topic, others feel as if this is repulsive.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
ASTI Constitution
As a result, bullying is not a person’s real personality. Found on Nawara Ahmed's Blog.
I had never really thought about bullying from this perspective, I realize that not everyone is a good person but bullying its self is not a trait someone is born with it is an acquired trait that happened because the bully had been tormented itself or uncomfortable and attempts to take it out on an other individual. The act of bullying is to preform a degrading action that is only done to make the victim feel uncomfortable with themselves or to hurt their feelings. Usually when this happens the victim either has a trait highly desired or has a trait that is foreign to the bully.
The ASTI constitution is in correlation with bullying because it was made to prevent it. The quote chosen incorporates all of what is expected from an ASTI student. The rules that tie into the quote the most is to be empathetic to others and to take responsibility for your words and actions. Doing such would enable others to resist the temptation of using their insecurities to make others feel bad.
The first and second ASTI rules are to: Think before you act or speek and to not exclude anyone for any reason. These rules are necessary for a peaceful community because without prior thought there would not be any filter in what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Exclusion is also a problem because of how it makes the ones excluded feel and how the excluders be so oblivious to what they are doing.
Rules three through five are to accept others for who they are, build mutual trust and respect and to always assume a positive intent for any miscommunication or issue. These rules were made to make it easier to communicate without conflict from a superficial issue.
The last two (not already mentioned) are to make a positive impact on the pople and environment around you and to resolve a conflict peacefully. These rules were created so each person can be in a heathy environment and any conflict created can be solved by the people who are involved and peacefully.
I had never really thought about bullying from this perspective, I realize that not everyone is a good person but bullying its self is not a trait someone is born with it is an acquired trait that happened because the bully had been tormented itself or uncomfortable and attempts to take it out on an other individual. The act of bullying is to preform a degrading action that is only done to make the victim feel uncomfortable with themselves or to hurt their feelings. Usually when this happens the victim either has a trait highly desired or has a trait that is foreign to the bully.
The ASTI constitution is in correlation with bullying because it was made to prevent it. The quote chosen incorporates all of what is expected from an ASTI student. The rules that tie into the quote the most is to be empathetic to others and to take responsibility for your words and actions. Doing such would enable others to resist the temptation of using their insecurities to make others feel bad.
The first and second ASTI rules are to: Think before you act or speek and to not exclude anyone for any reason. These rules are necessary for a peaceful community because without prior thought there would not be any filter in what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Exclusion is also a problem because of how it makes the ones excluded feel and how the excluders be so oblivious to what they are doing.
Rules three through five are to accept others for who they are, build mutual trust and respect and to always assume a positive intent for any miscommunication or issue. These rules were made to make it easier to communicate without conflict from a superficial issue.
The last two (not already mentioned) are to make a positive impact on the pople and environment around you and to resolve a conflict peacefully. These rules were created so each person can be in a heathy environment and any conflict created can be solved by the people who are involved and peacefully.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
13 Response: Just Kidding
One time that I have felt attacked by a larger group of people or have bullied was not by just one group of friends but by many boys in my school. All of them wanted a hook-up. I have been bullied before by a few people in my earlier years. They would tell me I couldn’t be their friend and that I was ugly, therefor I can relate to both forms of bullying.
Since the sexual harassment was more recent it has left fresh memories in my mind and lasting effects. Everyday some boy would come up to me and begin to use pick-up lines or just bluntly try to hook-up, some were worse than others. Most people would think this could be translated as a compliment, but not when you feel violated and not when rumors began to spread. They began with how much I preformed oral sex with men or how much I have slept around with men twice my age. The rumors began to become more elaborate and the boys became more aroused and felt it was okay to ask for “favors” or they would bluntly tell me we were going to have sex. When I rejected them they would become enraged and would create a whole new wave of rumors that would bombard me in the following weeks to come. I ignored the situation most of the time because I felt my options were scarce and thought I should just tough it out. Sometimes I would act that I did these things only to reject the boy creating embarrassment for the him but all it lead to was trouble.
I think people bully are truly insecure because all the boys that would hit on me were the loud, macho men of the school who would constantly brag about how much pussy they got and who was “tappin’ the most ass”. Since I wouldn’t give them what they wanted I became a prize highly desired, thats all I was, a shinny trophy that they could flaunt in eachothers faces. I never understood how I became “the prize” when no one won it, I have never felt more used than I had that year.
Harassment and bullying are in correlation because even though I was not teased or beat up I still had to deal with the constant snide remarks and groping from the boys who desired to do so. I plan to stop this form of bullying by helping people who are dealing with the same problems and giving them the confidence to stand up for themselves in a manner that wont result violently. I hope for any other people who have to deal with this that they will find a way to stop it soon.
Since the sexual harassment was more recent it has left fresh memories in my mind and lasting effects. Everyday some boy would come up to me and begin to use pick-up lines or just bluntly try to hook-up, some were worse than others. Most people would think this could be translated as a compliment, but not when you feel violated and not when rumors began to spread. They began with how much I preformed oral sex with men or how much I have slept around with men twice my age. The rumors began to become more elaborate and the boys became more aroused and felt it was okay to ask for “favors” or they would bluntly tell me we were going to have sex. When I rejected them they would become enraged and would create a whole new wave of rumors that would bombard me in the following weeks to come. I ignored the situation most of the time because I felt my options were scarce and thought I should just tough it out. Sometimes I would act that I did these things only to reject the boy creating embarrassment for the him but all it lead to was trouble.
I think people bully are truly insecure because all the boys that would hit on me were the loud, macho men of the school who would constantly brag about how much pussy they got and who was “tappin’ the most ass”. Since I wouldn’t give them what they wanted I became a prize highly desired, thats all I was, a shinny trophy that they could flaunt in eachothers faces. I never understood how I became “the prize” when no one won it, I have never felt more used than I had that year.
Harassment and bullying are in correlation because even though I was not teased or beat up I still had to deal with the constant snide remarks and groping from the boys who desired to do so. I plan to stop this form of bullying by helping people who are dealing with the same problems and giving them the confidence to stand up for themselves in a manner that wont result violently. I hope for any other people who have to deal with this that they will find a way to stop it soon.
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