Why I Write

Vintage Photo

http://www.old-picture.com/american-legacy/000/Parakeet-and-Cat.htm

This is an image of a parakeet and a cat. It is quite accurately named Cat and Parakeet. The photo was taken by Harris & Ewing, whom obviously harbored at least two great pets throughout their lives. This picture illustrates the fluffiness of a cat's fur that cannot be described by words, much like how the feeling of not being able to take off one's new fur coat even when one is dying of heat because it is so fluffy and comfortable like a warm shower on a cold winter morning is cannot be described by words. The simple parakeet resting on the dark furry coat of an indifferent, indulgent cat outlined by negative white space over a soft flowery blanket like thing resembles a full 9 course dinner after a long day of cold back breaking work. That's why I think this picture is worth a thousand words.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"It was inevitable."

I knew that I would get the answer wrong. That's how life is sometimes; it's the antithesis of one's very existence. I knew how everything would turn out, from years of experience and of being wrong. Life is like mind-games, but not really because the one who plays is always wrong, so perhaps one could think of life as being like a deity, or maybe more of a puppeteer. Life is like that. Whenever my heart tells me to dream big, I know that I will surely fail, because that is possibly the greatest setup for failure. There is no higher drop than having one's dreams crushed, so I have learned not to dream and, likewise, life has learned to dismantle me in other ways. So this morning, I had to take the PSATs. Firstly, I believe that life is becoming a little bit dull on the creative side, as it has started to become systematic and predictable. This morning, it started with the usual back stab by sending a tempest of headaches my way as soon as the test started; this was to ensure the maximum duration of the headache's effect on my not being able to concentrate during the test. That was the inception of my huge blunder on question thirty or so of the writing section (except that it wasn't question thirty or so on the writing section because I'm not allowed to say that it was question thirty or so, or at least I think I may not, so I shall refer to it as not question thirty or so). I was doing perfectly terrible until I didn't get to question thirty or so. It was not a question regarding grammar, which wasn't particularly difficult. I debated for  maybe a few minutes on what the correct answer was, taking into account what the answers for the other questions were as well (which was generally discouraged). I narrowed down the choices to said question that was not number thirty or so to two choices, and, naturally, I picked the correct answer. Then, life grew discontent. It was inevitable that I would have to second guess myself. So I did. And life won. Suddenly, I thought that maybe the answer was (not) E, as there hadn't been enough Es on my answer sheet. But then what if A was right after all? Well C was in the middle, so it could have been a good compromise, but there was only one correct answer so a compromise wouldn't do. Could there be three As in a row? What if there were three As in a row just to throw us off? Had I ever seen three of a kind in a row before on the answer sheet to my practice book? What if the other two As are wrong as well? Down the spiral of doom I went.

So that's why I got that question wrong today. It was inevitable, obviously.

Haiku-

Life is a petal
soaring until a soft breeze
can will me to rest

TU TUESDAY BLOG

http://blog.timesunion.com/gamers/the-battlefield-3-beta-is-here-and-almost-done/1259/

This article blogs about the anticipation of one gamer for the upcoming release of the popular video-game Battlefield 3. He has already played the open beta on "two systems the Xbox and PC", and has a very good understanding of how the game differs on consoles and PCs. Butler, the blogger, admits to not having much PC experience, but will buy the game for PC when it is released. Much of the article is, quite obviously, made of opinions, but the author definitely has a lot of experience with the game. One thing I find questionable was the fact that he claimed a certain glitch, "the one in the video above", to be the most annoying of glitches and then later on states that it actually "never happened to [Butler himself]". I find it really tough to believe secondhand information, especially on the internet and about video-games. People quite often tend to exaggerate and make up excuses as to why they lost. He also talked about hacks being found "already", but in a day and age like this one, that's unsurprising. He does give many bits of useful knowledge, and I don't think anything else could be too inconsistent.

TU TUESDAY, China against anti-artificially undervalued money bill proposed in U.S.

http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/China-US-currency-bill-would-have-repercussions-2201484.php

This article is based around the issue of the Chinese currency, known as the yuan, which has been artificially devalued for a very long time now. The reason for this is that devaluing the Chinese currency gives them an edge in the competition of exports by having the ability to sell their products at a significantly lower price. The new bill proposed in the U.S. aims to, from what I understand based on a similar conversation with my AP Euro teacher this morning, discourage trade with countries whose currency is artificially undervalued. This would probably include high tariffs, or otherwise. According to the article, "the Foreign Ministry, the Commerce Ministry, and central bank all issued statements denouncing [the proposed bill]", saying that it "'seriously violated WTO rules'" as well. Not only would China hurt from the bill, but the U.S. as well would see significant inflation and a rise in almost all imported goods because everybody knows that China makes everything we own. The reason the U.S. wants to protect itself from artificially devalued currency is because they see it as hurting their own job market as well as damaging the economy, but the Chinese stated that "it cannot resolve insufficient saving, the high trade deficit, and high unemployment rate". There is also the worry that, if the bill passes, it could lead to a "trade war" which will surely damage both sides. 


5 Questions I have after reading this.
-Why would the U.S. want to pass this bill, knowing it could hurt themselves just as much and cause inflation and hurt those who are already suffering from bad economic times?
-Which side, (i.e. democrat or republican) would most favor this bill, seeing as how it only benefits U.S. businesses?
-How has China managed to keep the value of the yuan so low?
-Should politicians sacrifice the welfare of the majority of citizens living in the U.S. for their own personal gains and, if so, how many people will notice that they are sacrificing the welfare of the people for their own personal gain?
-When China's economy slows down, who will be the next big nation?

Raising the pay of chief executive officers in bad economic times should be forbidden.

I believe that the investors should get more money instead. They are way cooler than CEOs and way richer to begin with, which must mean that they can handle money really well, otherwise they wouldn't still be so rich. Plus, there's always the saying that you need money to make money, and I think that, taking that to heart, encouraging investors to invest during tough times would be the perfect fix to all this debt. Therefore, the government should pour all of its resources into encouraging investors to spend by giving them more money and resources so that they can fund businesses. Also, if normal workers didn't get complimentary insurance, businesses would save a lot more money that they could use to invest elsewhere and become much larger, resulting in successful and happy investors. I think the government should give more decision making power to investors and let them decide what to do with all of the money so that they can become rich and help the world. CEOs on the other hand should have a large pay to begin with, especially with budget cutting of various unnecessary appendages of the company. In the long run, the super rich investors will drive the economy back into action in no time, while CEOs don't make enough money to sponsor other businesses privately to begin with. The other option would be to raise the pay of middle class workers, but then they would gain more power until equilibrium is reached, and that would lead to communism, "and we all know communism leads to killer aliens and the end of humanity and fox news." [edited by Andrew Fedorov].