Fahrenheit 451 Analysis

Discuss the blurred distinction between life/death in Fahrenheit 451, referring to Mildred, Clarisse, and life-like machines that dominate society. Use specific examples.

Fahrenheit 451 is a story about the future of humanity, and how it would eventually funnel down to staying indoors and completely shutting out the outside world. In this science fiction world, people are dominated by their reliance on technology and the strict leadership of their own governments. They are shut off from life-changing events going on around them, such as war and politics. They are also shut out from death. Guy Montag seems to be one of the only people to notice the blur of life and death, between his wife, neighbors, friends, and acquaintances. Throughout the story, Guy observes the snake-like machines and how "the impersonal operator of the machine could... gaze into the soul of the person" (14), and that being even near death did not mean much anymore. The next example of a blurred line between life and death was how Mildred was impartial about the fact that Clarisse had passed away. She tells Guy that "I meant to tell you. Forgot." (47), and that it apparently didn't mean much to her. Mildred remains impartial still when Guy says to her "We burnt a thousand books. We burnt a woman", because it did not affect her own life (50). Mildred herself does not feel any weight in terms of life. Her hobby is explained in her quote to Guy, "The keys to the beetle are on the night table. I always like to drive fast when I feel that way. You get it up around ninety-five and you feel wonderful. Sometimes I drive all night and come back and you don't know it. It's fun out in the country. You hit rabbits, sometimes you hit dogs. Go take the beetle." (68). The hound also represents the mix of life and death in society. The book described it as a being that "slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live." (24), with its intimidating killer instincts that made its own purpose only to end other beings' existences. Another blurred distinction is because of indifference; the indifference to life and death, and to war. Even as cities are bombed and destroyed in seconds, it might as well have been that they had not existed at all. In the end, Granger explained to Guy how "There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix..." (163), and how no matter how far man strayed from the values of life, it would always return again from the ashes.

TU Tuesday- Local

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Teen-charged-in-Schenectady-fires-3592197.php

On of the many cases of suspicious house fires in Schenectady started on Memorial Day weekend has been traced to a teen who has been "charged with arson... and the fire department is hoping a $500 reward will provide clues to other suspicious fires...". the 15 year old was arrested on Tuesday and faced numerous charges, with "two counts of fourth-degree arson, [and] a felony". So far, officials still expect more arsonists to exist. They are posting a $500 reward for clues on the suspects.

Fire Chief Michael Dellarocco said on Tuesday, "'An arsonist doesn't care about the life of a citizen or a firefighter so people should make sure they have a working smoke detector and be aware of what is going on in their neighborhood'". They are still advising people to be wary of suspicious activity in their neighborhoods.

There are many things that could cause instability in teens, such as issues with parents, and with others. More should definitely be done about things like this to get to the root of the problem, and to protect not only the teens but others as well.

21. Why is our military so important?

Our military is important because it protects the interests of our nation and upholds the liberating ideas of our nation all across the world. Without our military, there would be nothing to protect our best interests in other parts of the world, and our government would carry a greater burden themselves. Our military makes great sacrifices to ensure the longevity and well-being of our important investments that will undoubtedly make our country great and beautifully gilded. It allows us to impose our majestic presence to those less fortunate around the world, such as countries with plentiful natural resources but no way to harvest them because of their oppressive native rulers. Our military directly leads to the funding of science and technology, and creates many job opportunities. Thus, it is imperative that we, as citizens, help our own military out in the same fashion that they have helped some of us by reinforcing them with the $1 trillion in taxpayer money that they need to operate on in 2012. This small investment will no doubt be returned to our nation in time by the upholding of our values and business investments. Finally, without the military there would be no war, no expansion, no advancement, no growth, and no America. Foreign powers would dominate global affairs, and life would be terrible. America would be dragged down by them and they would cause massive inflation and joblessness. Without our military, life would be terrible.

What is Crippling Us?

Gatto and Bradbury both have very parallel views on the cons of modern society and about where trends are leading towards. Bradbury, in Fahrenheit 451, writes about how people in a society like ours shallowly entertain themselves with simplicity and ignorance. Gatto writes about the cause of these trends, which is education and a lack of it, or a lack of interest in it. Bradbury writes that people will become indifferent, and life will be diluted, with even the Bible. Faber remarks "I wonder if God recognizes His own son the way we've dressed him up, or is it dressed him down?"(81). Gatto says that "could it be our schools are designed to make sure [the children never] really grows up?". Gatto's statement could be interpreted as an observation of how schools are falling behind the times, and not focusing on the correct points that define a character, which I agree with. Bradbury also writes much on the way people think. Thought becomes shallower and shallower until deep thought itself is basically banned. The third important thing Faber recites is "the right to carry out actions based on what we learn"(85). Gatto reinforces this idea with the fact that he has observed kids' desires to learn things that are beyond the classroom, and that "adults regularly conflate opposition with disloyalty". Both writers recognize the fine line that distinguishes the rights everybody should have, which is to take an initiative in their own lives, but I disagree with the statement that opposition is not disloyalty when the same kids being discussed by Gatto are kids that Bradbury believes will become shallow and narrow minded, and basically incapable of taking the initiative for themselves. In this circumstance, I think that opposition will surely mean disloyalty, as it does in most cases in our own school. No kid would revolt because they feel that they are not learning enough.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm

Tried and True

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz9qxtcUB01qz4e4a.png

My advice is that I would recommend dating a cat instead, because cats do not have the ability to change their facebook relationship status (having a complete lack of paw dexterity and all that), so people who base their conclusions on information gathered from facebook would be much better off. A few key points about this graph illustrate actual real life points though, which is that relationships are generally favored when there is a complete lack of any contact whatsoever between the two parties. It is good to break up before Christmas so that you don't have to give your partner an expensive gift. It is also good to break up during holidays for the same reasons, including the fact that you can save yourself some time and do what you want to do.

TU Tuesday Commencement Speech

J.K. Rowling is a witty and motivating writer who set a great example by climbing out of poverty and becoming ridiculously successful, although she remarks that "Poverty itself is romanticized only by fools". She believes that  people can be "driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success", and that failure is not fun, but it is necessary and builds the core of one's personality. To get over the fear of failure gives an overwhelmingly fresh and lightweight feeling. If you've lived too cautiously, "you might as well not have lived at all". J.K. Rowling has experienced a wider range of life than most average people, from severe poverty to amazing success. She believes strongly that every person should experience some sort of failure, but also that everyone should have an imagination. Imagination "is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared."

Steve Jobs was another well known successful figure who had strong beliefs in success and failure. In Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Isaacson writes that Jobs, at an early age, "was fascinated by the need for perfection". Decades later, he would still have zero tolerance for the imperfect, and the average. 

Both of these people grew up in a less than wealthy life while they were young, but they brought themselves to success with determination and a lack of fear of failure. They both worked hard and wanted to help others for the greater good of humanity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGqp8lz36c&feature=related

http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537

22. If I Were an Advertiser Today

If I were an advertiser today, life would be pretty easy. It's really not hard to look around and see for oneself how easy it is to successfully market a product. Especially here, in the west, where we're basically a civilization full of lots of money. I would really like to be an advertiser, because it would be one of the most entertaining and rewarding jobs out there. And it's easy money. These days, there are even advertisements advertising programs that allow people to tell advertisers how bad their advertisements are. It's getting really ridiculous, admittedly, but it's still not getting any less profitable. And money is delicious.

Love to Know Slideshow

http://freelance-writing.lovetoknow.com/Slideshow:Free_Writing_Prompts~4

Broke

If you were stranded far away from home and only had $20 in your wallet, what would you do?

If I were stranded far away from home and only had $20, I would buy a lighter for no more than $4 so that I could start a fire for the night with the remaining paper money I had, and then I would smelt the coins into something sharp so that I could kill food. Then, I would cook half of the food over the $15-or-so fire so that I could eat half of the food and give the other half to a dragon that could fly me home. Then I'd sell the dragon and become a billionaire. Then I'd buy a house in the place where I was stranded, because it must be an awesome place if it has dragons.

Creative Contest III

Lived happily ever after. The end.

Atheism: Atheism is a disbelief in the idea of God, or any form of deities. The term atheism originated in 16th century France, although its popularity grew only with the rise of science and religious tolerance. There are different forms of atheism, from a lack of theism to a strong agenda against theism. I disagree with the latter because although there is no scientific proof that God exists, there is also no 100% certain proof that God does not exist, and so it is a stalemate and neither side should try to convince the other. Therefore everybody is wrong until they are proven right, which would be never.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

TU Tuesday- Classified

looking for new home for 2 albino rabbits all white with pink eyes asking 85 dollars for both must go together sisters 1 yr old lovable love being held and loved on will need your own cage comes with water bottle food dish food and timothy hay and some litter to start u off used to being in cage and let loose for play they do not chew or try to chew stuff lovable lil sisters call 235 1419 for more details ty

http://timesunion.kaango.com/ad-albino-rabbits/20441485

Fiction:
Buttered Rabbit Stew

I can't really think of anything to confess about when I need to most, I guess. Going to church isn't really a part of my usual schedule, y'know. Well, okay, I had a friend with two very delicious rabbits once. You see, my friend had "2 albino rabbits all white with pink eyes", and she wanted to sell them. It was a piece of work talking together. Maybe it was the keyboard or something, but my friend's spelling was a piece of garbage, and the syntax sucked. Well, anyways, it wasn't as high-quality as a restaurant or anything, but they were "1 yr old", and so I thought maybe they would taste like veal or something, like how cows taste better when they're young and have been confined in a box all their lives. I'm not sure why, but that's what I've been told. The only downside was that the two rabbits were to cost a total of "85 dollars" and had to go "together", as if the buyer were to keep them as a pet or something. Well, I figured I had some extra butter in the fridge that wouldn't be tasty by itself, so in the end I bought some rabbits and learned how to cook. It's not much of a confession, but I think it's a pretty cool story. Oh, and if you need somebody to cook meals for a religious gathering, I cook up a pretty delicious buttered rabbit stew.

U=Umbrella Mushroom Omelette

1⁄2 lb. sliced mixed fresh mushrooms, such as criminis 
   and wild chanterelles- Mushrooms are one of those kinds of foods that just have to make people wonder about how they were first discovered to be edible. It's one of those things that are good but weird, like raw fish and vitamin C. Sometimes I really like them, and sometimes not so much.


1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced- My mom always peels the onions, so I never knew how onions could make people cry.


1 tsp. sugar- A teaspoon or a half a cup all looks the same when mixed together. And more sugar never really hurt that many people. My aunt used to like adding sugar to food when she was little, and had to watch the sugar be stirred in to be sure it was indeed added. My mom played tricks by stirring the sugar in so that my aunt wouldn't believe there was sugar and would need to add more sugar to her food until it became supersaturated.


1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil- It goes great with bread too; a fact that we discovered at Romano's Macaroni Grill.


3 scallions, trimmed and chopped into 1" pieces- I like seafood, but, as with everything I like, it's not good for my stomach sometimes.


2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced- garlic tastes bad, and I completely sympathize with vampires.


1 tbsp. red-wine vinegar- I always thought that things like that had too much vinegar, and not enough red wine. That was before I realized that alcohol is the worst tasting thing ever, of all time.


8 eggs- which, to this day, I still can't crack perfectly.


Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Leaves from 4–5 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, chopped- After finding out that they made no difference, we decided to save ourselves the extra effort for this and future recipes.


http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Mushroom-Omelette

Famous Poem Starters

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day; to when the trees bloom with green vibrant colors and the sky is unclouded and life synthesizes with the lines of pollen hung low in the summer air. I hate summer. There is only contempt for the ants and the flies and the bugs that come out and become infatuated by the idea of creating infestations of themselves inside my house when the circumstances for life and liveliness rears its head. It's ridiculous. Then there come the storms. Rain, which brings lightning, and lightning which brings hail to ruin all of the few pros that come with the liveliness of summer, such as flowers and swimming and being outside. Yet in light of all of the storms, the one thing to come out ahead is not flowers or the possibility of being outside, but bugs. Bugs escape with their lives so that they may meddle another day. And pollen and allergies, that's a story that won't even fit in this story. Summer is terrible. When you are cold, you can put on as many blankets as you want. When you are hot, you can only take off so much until you start considering whether shedding skin and bones and vital organs is worth it. And the days always deceive. It stays light well into the night to fool students into thinking that they still have time to procrastinate, when in fact they are already doomed. Winter sucks too. We would be lucky that all four seasons can't happen at once, but unfortunately they can, and it's called spring, and we're not even out of the woods with that season yet. So that's a year. Every year. Mars doesn't have this problem, I'm sure.

Nursery Rhymes ARE Relevant to Life

Three blind mice

---

Three blind mice,
See how they run!
They all ran after a farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?

This rhyme preaches the importance of thinking and common sense. It's relevant to life because it teaches people to not get their hopes up about false dreams and to watch where they are going. The mice were blind to the destination of the road they were travelling on, and thus they lost their tails. I, personally, find this rhyme to be very motivating and encouraging.

Turn an Inkblot into a Butterfly

Knowing

You never forget

what you do not know,

and you never do not know

twice in a row if you learn.

Well, there I was

face to face with the most

terrifying

history question

And I did not have a clue.

But, lo and behold,

the next time it showed, I did not 

not have a clue again.

Zack Kilmer

http://blog.timesunion.com/gamers/video-game-violence/1326/
http://blog.timesunion.com/gamers/zack-kilmer-gamer-extraordinaire/1291/

Zack Kilmer is a blogger for the Times Union who writes about his thoughts on various aspects of the video game entertainment industry from time to time. He is a self proclaimed "digital hipster" that dislikes "games that cater to gameplay clichés". His favorite part about video games is that gamers can "take a direct part in the action and narrative of a story". One of the topics he blogged about was a very ancient and controversial topic about violence in video games. Kilmer argues that it is a complete waste of time to argue about banning violent video games and that it is ridiculous. He states that "there is a reason that the... ESRB rates the games". He strongly believes that "Videogames are a form of expression, equal to film and literature." and uses the First Amendment as a main argument on why video games will not be banned successfully any time soon.

NYT Tuesday

Found Poem


In general, careful attention to 
choosing and 
combining language 
impresses us most — the 
thoughtful choices that make us
see something in a new way. We also 
loved the surprises: the poems that start off 
being
about one thing and
end up being about another; the poems that
comment on the article they came from; the poems that
smash together unlikely words and images, or a
clever combination of Times source material,
to say something new.







(original >14 lines)
In general, careful attention to 
choosing and 
combining language 
impresses us most — the 
thoughtful choices that make us
 see something in a new way. We also 
 loved the surprises: the poems that start off 
 being
 about one thing and
 end up 
 being about another; the poems that
 comment on the article they came from; the poems that
 smash together unlikely words and images, or a
 clever combination
 of Times source material,
 to say
 something new.

My favorite season...

I hate seasons. There is no perfect season because it is always too hot, or too cold, or too light, or too dark, and there is always something wrong at any given time. There always has to be at least one thing wrong every month. In the winter, it is too cold, and everybody gets sick, and nobody has fun. The only thing to look forward to in winter is snow, which causes traffic accidents and didn't even come this year. Then it becomes spring, and spring is just winter and summer, alternating so that it is impossible to not catch a cold. On the off chance of a good day, it will only be followed by terrible days which crush your newly raised expectations. Then it's summer. Summer is the most lethargic season, physically. Unlike winter, which is psychologically lethargic, summer is a season of dehydration and nosebleeds and passing out. And when it cools down a bit, at last, it starts to hail. And then it begins to thunderstorm. And it sucks. Then fall arrives and everybody mentally dies because it is cold and lifeless and the days are getting shorter. And then it is winter.

T = Taco Bell

My restaurant is Taco Bell, located on Wolf Road, Crossgates Mall, and in many other places. It is modeled after Mexican-American style foods with a selection of tacos, quesadillas, and lots of meat and cheese wrapped together. While it's indistinguishable from other fast food restaurants, both in setting and taste, it is always a reliable place to go for food. It's famous for it's tacos, of course, and the fact that it's open until midnight or later. For people who are paid minimum wage, the employees are still very good at pretending to be happy, and the place is always very clean, like other fast food restaurants. The only problem with the food is that spicy or mildly spicy food doesn't go well with soda, which makes it hard for Taco Bell to be the kind of place that it is. Overall, eating fast food every day is probably actually very deadly, but Taco Bell is a great place to go to every once in a while.

The Book That Changed My Life

My favorite book is The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. It resembles many great classic fairy tales, and modern fairy tales are my favorite genre because they open up many new opportunities for different styles of writing and imagination. Alice in Wonderland and Le Petit Prince are some of my other favorite books of this genre, and are generally more well known. I like stories where the protagonist travels through different places with unique themes and meets characters with different personalities that can eventually develop and retain depth. Books like The Phantom Tollbooth, as well as games, have helped me create and design places of my own that haven't actually been used for anything important, but have been fun to make. Extreme places, such as Heaven and Hell, or towers of infinity, and places that embody ideas, such as the island of conclusions that people teleport to when they jump to conclusions, all make books like The Phantom Tollbooth an interesting and inspirational read that can make the reader think.

Bucket List

1. Write a whole entire story, and not just ten paragraphs between five different stories.

2. Visiting Europe again would be really nice. There's lots of food and places to go and fresh air and food. There is a lot of food. It's a great place.

3. Buy a cat. Cats are great. They give people allergies and they can destroy furniture and cover everything in cat hair and take up valuable resources while returning only waste and fur. And they can flip over in midair when you throw them out of a tree upside down.

4. Write code for a videogame. Programming is fun, and videogames are fun, so writing a code would be, like, double the fun. Which is why it's weird that learning how to code games is not fun at all, but it's still a goal.

5. Have another Tim Horton's toasted bagel with cream cheese and iced coffee for breakfast. I've only ever seen them in Canada though.

6. Get to the highest level of the online games I am currently playing.

7. Learn how to make dumplings that aren't square. It is actually not easy to make dumplings. I learned that pretty quickly.

8. Finish watching all the TV series on my to-do list.

9. Invent a trading card game. The easiest kind of game to make, and possibly the genre of games with the best business model as well. Any time money is running low, you can just make more cards and people will just keep buying.

10. Find a job and earn money. Money is good. I like money. I think making money is a good goal to have. Then I can buy cool things and feel successful.

The Language of Song

Song: Sweet Float Flats by Manbo
Lyrics http://vgboy.dabomstew.com/lyrics.php?song=sweetfloatflats

Living on the top floor of an apartment without an elevator is tough. Actually, there is an elevator, physically speaking, but in this particular apartment, people who get some exercise and walk down the entire 10 stories just seem to have a longer life expectancy. Besides, Bob uses it as a transport for produce. I heard his mushrooms grant extra lives.

On the ninth floor are all of the tenants who came before the newest ones. They seem to trickle down based on age, and the newer and younger ones always get the worst conditions; which would be the tenth floor, of course.

The stairs leading down from the eighth to the seventh floor are missing, and has been missing more and more for quite some time. People say that one of the residents likes to use the bricks from the stairs to hit cars from below. They say that he's an environmentalist. He sounds a lot like karma.

The seventh floor was quite a lucky floor. It managed to even get out of the apartment in one piece. So now people use ladders to climb up to floor eight.

On the sixth floor live the most pretentious people. The air is saturated with a mix of all sorts of perfume from rooms 601 to 602 to 603 and from yesterday to last week to last month. The smell hangs off of the walls almost more brightly than the decorations that contrast the walls so well with the whole rest of the building.

The fifth floor hosts not-quite-legal-but-almost-acceptable dog fights and other tournaments and I hear that the people there are really enthusiastic about animals. They even donate whatever resources they have to spare to the local animal physiology clinic so that animals may one day be better treated for injuries and things.

The fourth floor is a fairly mundane floor. The people there are only ever interested in cars, but only when they are not threatening the tenant on the eighth floor. Actually, the people on the fourth floor are actually very rich from dealings with the mafia, and their cars are worth more than their homes, which is why I have no idea why they still live here.

Nobody cares about the third floor.

The second floor is a terrible place for the people on the tenth floor to walk through. It kind of just signifies either the almost-but-not-quite end of an unnecessarily long trek down, or the point of no return of an impossible journey up. To top it all off, the elders who live on the first floor are terrible people who are laughing on the inside at all the top floor people and don't have to walk anywhere and I hope they move out soon.

I'm sure I'll get to the first floor eventually. For now, maybe there are friends to be found here. I'm sure there's  something good in everything. Except the people on floor one. They need to move out. Soon.

Irish Blog

TU Tuesday CRIME

My question: How do people go about stealing vehicles, and what are the charges they could face when caught?

http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Man-arrested-after-100k-vehicles-equipment-found-3406860.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_theft

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2913.02 

This article was about a man named Brian Michael Davidson who was found with stolen vehicles and charged with 19 felony charges. The motives of Davidson weren't displayed in the article, but it was probably for money or other personal gain. "Officials recovered two Ford diesel trucks, a backhoe, a commercial generator and two motorcycles...". The stolen property totaled around $100,000. One of the most common methods of stealing vehicles are to simply target ones that are unattended but still have keys in the ignition, or windows down. Sometimes, thieves will start by "breaking and entry, followed by hotwiring...". This man also probably could have used fraudulent theft, or illegal acquisition of a vehicle... through fraudulent transfer of funds...". "If the value of the property or services stolen is seven thousand five hundred dollars or more and is less than one hundred fifty thousand dollars, a violation of this section is grand theft, a felony of the fourth degree", which was probably what this man will be charged with. Along with jail time, Davidson may be fined for the stolen property.

Creative Contest II Blog

"After their third argument in just one week, Bob finally lost his head."

Scruples

9. ($300 Wallet) This depends a lot on what kind of person the wealthy person seems to be. If I didn't have enough information on who it was, I would probably keep the $300. Most wealthy people are stingy anyways, and it's not like the taxes they pay are going to go anywhere useful so a $300 donation (to me) would be much more meaningful and I'm sure it will give them very reasonable amounts of karma in return. If there was a good chance of a reward, or gain, from returning the wallet, then I would probably take it (such as if the wallet had sentimental or other value that could not be redeemed otherwise, or if befriending said rich person seemed like a profitable investment in the future). I would definitely try to find a way to make future profits from said wealthy person, whether it be following him/her until he/she dropped his/her wallet again, or even if I have to return the wallet. Anyways, the flow of money is how the economy gets going again, so it's not such a bad thing. There's always two sides to everything.

My Blog Idea

I believe it was Mimi Moriarty who presented the idea of a "found poem" to the class. A "found poem" is basically where one finds poetry in everyday writings, such as in magazines, books, and just about any other object with words on it or in it or around it as long as it is not already poetry itself. In the strict form of found poetry, the punctuation and form can be changed, and enjambments can be added as long as the order of the words do not change. In a freer form, original "self-written" parts can also be added on to sections of the poem.

Original Text: From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of central and eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in the Soviet sphere and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high  and increasing measure of control from Moscow..." - Western Civilization by Jackson J. Spielvogel, page 882.

Cold
War

From Stettin
in the Baltic
to Trieste in the Adriatic,
an iron curtain
has descended across the continent.
Behind
that line
lie all the capitals of the ancient states of central and eastern Europe. Warsaw,
Berlin,
Prague, Vienna,
Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest,
and Sofia,
all lie in the
Soviet sphere
and all are subject,
in one way or another, not only
to Soviet influence but
to a very high
and increasing measure
of
control from Moscow...

Revisions

1.There are sparrows in the open fields
somewhere over there, and
they glide gracefully over the hills of
flowers and leaves and fresh green grass
saturated with soft, blurring mildew
with the scent of melons. They whisper
through the air with their wings
of paper feathers and songs of crystal clear
tunes. They are free, soft, and delicate things
that serve no purpose, but they are welcome,
because to me they are like decorations in my
peripheral vision, which is to say that they
are awe-inspiring and remind me of
if I could be free.
2. Andrew - You have some beautiful imagery in the poem "Air."  The poem needs a bit of trimming.  The end of the poem sounds more like prose than poetry, and that's where I would trim some of the lines.  If you do that, I think you'll have a great poem.

Mimi Moriarty

3. There are sparrows in the open fields

somewhere over there, and
they glide gracefully over the rolling hills 

of flowers and leaves and fresh green grass
saturated with soft, blurring mildew
with the scent of melons. They whisper
through the air with their paper wings
and origami feathers and songs of crystal clear
tunes. They are free, soft, and delicate things
that hang like the tree shaped car fresheners

and exist like a lazy cat on a Sunday.

They are.

4. I feel that the revised is definitely more clear and lightweight in terms of jargon. The first one actually had no true point towards the end and it dragged the light feeling of the beginning down a bit. Also, I had not noticed that it was in fact prose towards the end which I should probably look out for in the future. Aside from replacing and adding a few words in the beginning, cutting out the end was really the big thing that I revised in this piece. There still isn't much of a meaning, but the air of the poem is much, much lighter. Arguably, lazy is still too heavy of a word, but I feel like it could be left there as a transition towards something else if I were to use this poem again sometime.

S = Eight Living People to Emulate

1. Minoru Shiraishi- There are few role models in life that can take on the role of voice actors who play the part of the animated version of themselves in movies and TV series. Multiple different times. And he can sing the openings to said movies / TV series.

2. Mrs. Salamone- My ninth grade English teacher who taught and certainly inspired many to write and read more challenging works.

3. Joseph Stalin- Heavily industrialized Russia and created huge profits, as well as being partly responsible for the Russian victory in WWII because of this. not alive...oops. Well he's still pretty important.

3. Sarah Palin- she has the ability to see Russia from her house, she has a lot of experience in foreign policy because of Alaska's close proximity with Russia, as well as having a wide variety of tastes in literature and the habit of reading every single newspaper that has ever been put in front of her. She is also a strong supporter of the Tea Party and coining new terms, and her hobbies are comparable to those of such literary geniuses as Shakespeare.

4. Sen- A pro Starcraft 2 player from Taiwan, he has consistently good macro and ZvT matchups.

5. Skrillex (Sonny John Moore)- Is extremely talented at writing music, and has been extremely popular.

6. J.K.Simmons- The voice actor for Cave Johnson, who has motivated many people to live better, take control of life, and do science.

7. Shannon Chan-Kent- Also a voice actor who has spread friendship and joy and parties across the western world.

8. SaSe- An experienced professional Warcraft 3 player who has competed and practiced in China before moving on to Starcraft 2. He managed to amazingly defeat Idra, Naama, and Kas in DreamHack Summer 2011, and was knocked out of the Round of 16 by Sen. He now practices mainly Starcraft 2 in South Korea.

TU Tuesday-Culture

http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Land-dispute-sparks-protests-in-east-China-village-3334716.php
http://www.chinese-poems.com/d39.html

This article is about disputes between villagers and police over land disputes. The violent disputes and protests have been around in the past, and have now sparked protests, and the violence has escalated to where "a Dutch reporter interviewing villagers... was beaten up...by men who appeared to be plainclothes police". The poem, Qiang Village 3, is also about a struggle between villagers with the harsh conditions imposed upon them by the government. "Conscription still continues without an end" and "children are campaigning to the east" have a sort of alliteration that uses the hard c sound and gives a feeling of the rigidity of laws and mandates imposed upon the villagers and their way of life.

Valentine's Day

When I looked up and saw Cupid with his bow, I knew we were in trouble. Soon, there were scores of them, like a hive of bees. The clear blue sky drowned in minutes in a pool of magic dust that was colored a rainbow of red. I immediately commanded my pet panda to make a quick escape while I fired back miscellaneous objects at the swarms of cupids with my slingshot. Tables, desks, bowls of cereal, power cords, gift cards, and mattresses flew through the air, cutting through arrows and streaks of red. Cupids fell from the sky like flies in the rain. One of the flung kitchen knives hit an evergreen tree, which landed on a few of the Cupids and stopped the others from giving pursuit. After making it through the Chasm of Cupids, we finally encountered our last obstacle.  The Cave of Cavities. Naturally, I threw my long-time acquaintance, the Cat, into the dark, unwelcoming depths first to check for dangers. When the coast was clear, our party cautiously sneaked in, hoping to get to the other side and out the cave without a hitch. Suddenly, a pair of sheet white eyes appeared not ten meters ahead of us. I commanded the Cat to harness the power of white hot love and to stay still. Then, I punted him straight between the pair of lifeless eyes, which no doubt belonged to the Candy Monster, and ran bolted right out of the cave with my pet panda, leaving nothing but a smoldering wreckage behind. Later, I would again rendezvous with my acquaintance, the Cat, on a different journey to the Mountains of Heavenland, but that would be another tale. We, (my panda and I), had made it at last, to the land of Eternal Chocolate. We let go of our vigilance, while expecting to be greeted warmly. Luckily, something caught our attention. I've long forgotten how we figured out that the land of Eternal Chocolate wasn't actually eternal, and that it was only open ten to five on Valentine's Day, (or how we managed to even remember when Valentine's Day was, for that matter), but I do remember when we looted as much chocolate from that place as we could before burning it down too, and those were some good, good times.

Happy Chocolate Day Everyone!
May the next year be forever better than the previous!

Time passes as night blooms

Rainbow Sky, Transiently

Time passes as night blooms
like a watercolor painting
with dark, bold purple
bleeding into the red-orange
tangerine sunset bleeding into
a faint, empty yellow
apathy bleeding into green
softer than grass with hints
of envy bleeding into the blue,
blue, soft-as-day
sky above.

Comic Connection

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2011/12/10
I chose this comic because it reminds me of popular modern trends such as Facebook, Myspace (well, maybe not anymore?), and Twitter. Suddenly, conversation and thought has been degraded and condensed into snippets of statements and other people's thoughts. Bill Watterson has predicted the future, and it is very boring and mindless. Serious people can look at this comic and maybe say that it is about the childish ways of craving attention in every part of life. I think that it is fun to make a mockery of our flaws and the one's of society and that it is also very profitable to then put those pieces of satire into comic strips. As for me, I would  like to stay away from things like that, because they sound very boring in retrospect. Besides, a picture is worth a thousand words, and that's what pictures are for.

Don't wait to get started

Procrastination has always been a big part of my life and study schedule, as well as being a part of the lives of many other students. There is no way to explain why I always resolve to get things done before taking a break, even though I know I will not get anything done before taking a break. It is like deja vu, how I always procrastinate again and again after I know I will procrastinate. So this pep talk really does apply to my life greatly. Maybe I will be more successful, or witness more opportunities if I stop stopping. There are many times where I retrospectively regret not starting on something sooner. Either way, it is a helpful piece of advice, even though advice will not help much at all.

TU Tuesday

http://blog.timesunion.com/adirondacks/one-in-vermilioin/1054/
"I heard they lost a billion trees" was a hyperbole, or exaggeration, that reinforced the kind of light the author cast on the speaker at the other end of the telephone, in the sense that it made her, herself, seem more hyper and exaggerated and somewhat naive.
"and the next thing... and I had... and what are... and God knows..." The repetition, or repeating, of conjunctions and the run-on dialogue is also used to create the same hyper, too-much-to-say tone in the character of April.
"squeak like hinges" is a simile, (a comparison that uses like or as), which creates a sound in the reader's mind that helps to better explain the tone.

"One in Vermilion" is an article written by a bird field guide specialist about a, presumably, real life phone conversation with a crazed woman who is extremely naive and extremely interested in birds herself. He uses this conversation as a piece of evidence that he has "paid for [his] first field guide to the birds with [his] sanity". In the dialogue, he uses basically no punctuation to portray the speaker at the other end of the line as a crazy and slightly dim girl who lacks judgment and patience and who is on "nicotine or THC" because she talks so fast and won't slow down to even think about the ridiculous things she's saying. One of the things she mistakes, and thus was ridiculed by, was the line "I heard [Texas] lost a billion trees" in the context of the effects of global warming. This article was mostly a self blog about an event that happened.

Original Poems III

Art
(I want to write about)

I want to write
about how
I think
I know
how I should write
about how I
should write
that I know,
I think,
about how
I want to write.

Coffee
(Strong words)

Richer
than a golden ring
of flavor and
thicker than
buttered toast
with the edges just slightly
burnt
with cold
lifeless
vanilla
form

Original Poems II

Cats
(Acrostic)

Cats
Are like
Terse
Similes for everything.

Where I'm From
(Where I'm From)

I am from mice, from iPods and different.

I am from the perfect white backyards in the wintertime.
I am from the leaves, and the sunlight (possibly quite literally).
I am from the year of the rat, rabbit, dragon, and sheep and too high standards, from my mom, my dad, and my brother.
I am from the perfectionist that fawns over the little things and the procrastination with everything else.
From carefree and diligence.
I am from universalism. Whether it be because of acceptance or indifference.
I'm from Canada,
and rice and dumplings.
From those times I almost died but not quite, the days when school had no homework, and the times when Santa was so much closer.
I am from those places
from where I'm from.


not Cats
("Poem")


The other day
my dog was 
rummaging
through my backpack


and he seemed
awfully hungry
with his intimidating,
voracious appetite.


Well, I'm not saying
that it was him,
but maybe
it was him.

Original Poems I

Experimental Thesis on the Effect of Conceptual Thought Element Soup Door Tree Oatmeal Universe
Freeverse

Once upon a time
in a land
far,
far away there was a
blue hippopotamus that
ate ice-cream, and
it flew because it had
wings and it was not red
so it was blue
and it flies
and then the goat
was not blue
so it exploded and
then it was cake
and it ate red
carrots and marshmallows
and giant toasters
that had wings and
was rainbows
with windows, on the side
that housed goats
that traveled
on top of trains
to a nowhere land of
the blue hippopotamus.

Not A Picture
(Haiku)

Art is not so much
how good art is, but moreso
how bad my eyes are.

Halfway There
(Monostich (For Fun))

There is no mention of Cats here.

Wisp
(Sevenling)

An idea that springs up from the wellspring
of knowledge lies still for only a moment,
eager for a vessel of action to engrave it forever

until the sands of time snatch it away through
fingertips, while all that is left is a thought that
something was there for a fleeting moment.

I'm not saying there was something, but maybe there was.

Vocabulary on my Mind

(Note: I got sick and didn't actually have time to use every single word... or even half...)
The brevity of the itinerant's speech was marked by the contemporary colloquial tones of the unobtrusive din of vapid monotone and indifference as he nonchalantly expressed his want to quickly take leave and leave behind the effervescent labyrinth of sedentary toadies and finish his work in a succinct and thrifty manner so that he may carry on in a quiescent manner and enjoy his plethora of extra time by sleeping soundly at the end of a mellifluous day, although the reality was that life would not possibly be so obsequious and altruistic for that would obviously be all too kind of an act for such an intractable adversary as life.

What I Need to Know About Writing and Writers to Become a Better Writer

My topic for this project is the role of creativity in all good writing, and how to use it effectively and how to develop different aspects of it such as voice, style, word choice, and ideas. I chose this topic because I am very interested in the creative elements of writing, and also because this has been a theme in the original idea we had at the beginning of the project. I believe that writing can always be furthered with a little bit of out-of-the-box thinking.

1/17 Speaker 5*****

Guest Speaker Round 4= Marni Gillard

In The High Dive, I really like the voice the author uses that has great sync with the personality of someone little. I agree that for someone writing from the perspective of a younger character, tighter writing is better. I think that there can also be instances where writers write from an older perspective, looking back in time, and I think that that is an interesting style too. For this piece, however, I like the repetitive "Watch me!..." dialogue that shows the age of the character and the craving for assurance in some way. In this piece, the setting is in a pool somewhere, with water and a fast-paced set of scenes that races forward like a child's mind. I think that the flashback of "Earlier that night at supper" breaks the flow of the story somewhat. I, personally, would push it into an earlier paragraph, perhaps, because there are important bits of information in it. Another thing to note is that the literal elements of the story, such as "I shiiiiiivered" would fit much better into a "Geronimo Stilton" style, with colorful word art words that appeal to kids, rather than a black on white word document format. Overall, the story is very consistent, in voice, theme, and writing style, and would really appeal to younger readers. A last thing to note would be that, unless for emphasis' sake, "What d'ya say" could be changed to "What'd ya say" and "Daaady" to "Daaaddy". 
1/12 Speaker = 5*****

Round Three- Mary Moriarty

One Art is a poem with a very loose structure and rhyme. The poem adopts a short and concise theme with only 3 lines and many enjambments for the sake of maintaining a rhyme. The poem uses contrasts between good and bad to create a unique view on losing. "The art of losing isn't hard to master" uses "art" and "losing" in the same line, which makes me imagine a juxtaposition of being good at something bad. Occasionally, the poem doesn't rhyme when it seems like it should, such as with "fluster" and "master", which gives it a less serious tone.

Monochrome Life

I always wake up lying in bed

And as I stay there for a while

I'm glad I'm not so quite too dead

But no matter how much food I chew

or how much I sweep the tiles,

I always wake up lying in bed

And there's still so much stuff to do

At least I'm not a crocodile?

I'm glad I'm not so quite too dead.

After I say the goodnight cue

And let the sleepy night beguile

I always wake up lying in bed.

Everyday there's more to rue

with work piled high on little life isle

I'm glad I'm not so quite too dead

But of what others do, I live in lieu,

And after all of the difficult trials

I always wake up lying in bed and

I'm glad I'm not so quite too dead.

In The Back Seat of My Mother's Car, the most noticeable thing is it is rare to find a sentence that is not broken into two lines. In the first line, "We left before...comfort you", the line is split between "time" and "to". After arriving at the second paragraph, the whole poem becomes visible in that it is a perfectly eloquent mirror image of the first half of the poem. The lines are in reverse, but still flow smoothly such as with "half-dark. I wanted..." and how both sentences after it made perfect sense. While the first poem ends on a vivid cliffhanger, the second seems to carry a heavier atmosphere.

In  Fatherland and Track Photo, the author seems to be describing pictures in detail with stories. There is more action and feeling than description, such as "he flicks away the simplest memory". In Track Photo, what Susan Comninos said about enjambments can be seen to really have the full effect with short lines. When one line seems to be saying one thing, it can mean something else, such as with the "urn pushed / into a stone wall"

Bored Out of His Mind

Thoughts escape

from his inner self as

he collects himself 

in a neat 

and vapid fashion,

wondering why he is

here with a pseudo smile

looking into nothing

and he hopes,

as he can only hope,

that nobody really has the telepathy

to read his mind, cursing

this terrible

time wasting past-time.

1/10 Speaker = 5*****