Life After This Blog Post

In my letter to myself, I checked in on myself. I asked him if he's doing okay, if he enjoys college. Along with that, I also asked if he's happy, if he's reached the goals he's wanted to achieve and to keep on going and to succeed. And when technology permits, to write me back

I CAN Read!

My recital can be viewed HERE. There's an estimated total of about 11 stutters and mistakes

Practice Essay

  Plato and Satre's characters both have different ways of looking at things and dealing with situations. They both would take a different approach of a situation or an event. If I were put in the shoes of a character in "No Exit", and a prisoner (even though a prisoner in the cave might not be wearing shoes, but you get the point) from "The Allegory Of The Cave", this is how I would approach a situation of some sort. This situation will be the first one listed, a certain sound outside of our peripheral vision.

  If I were put in the shoes of a character in "No Exit", the sound outside would go off, then I'd think of what that sound was exactly. Once I got my general idea of what I thought it was or sounded like, I'd immediately get in contact with other friends or colleges of mine and then talk with them through a group message, or try and meet in person and discuss what exactly the sound was. Then we'd throw in our opinions and thoughts with each other until we'd come to an agreement on  what exactly it was, or even get enough info to where we don't have an exact opinion on what it was, but to figure out what the sound was and what caused the noise to occur.

  Now, in the shoes of a prisoner in "The Allegory Of The Cave", the approach would be taken much differently. First, the noise would go off. Then, time would be taken to try and figure out what the noise is or what exactly made it. However, with only one idea on what we thought the sound was, we'd only be able to assume our own opinion, whether right or wrong, and never find out what exactly made that sound, unless if we were able to escape from the cave into the light, where we could explore outside of the cave and try and get a better idea of what the sound was.

  So these are two different takes on a situation by two completely different characters. Both authors, Plato and Sartre show good examples of characters that would go differently if a certain situation occurred. Not to mention that other situations would probably go the same way.

Merry (Er... Almost) Christmas! Enjoy A Christmas Playlist

Hey! It's November 25th! You know what that means! It's a month until Christmas! Even though Thanksgiving is in two days, I think that it seems a bit appropriate to start listening to Christmas music now. So, I have composed a small Christmas list for the blog, that will be around until New Years. So please enjoy. I insist...

And the track list:

New Found Glory- Ex-Miss
Blink 182- I Won't Be Home For Christmas
No Doubt- Oi To The World
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones- X'Mas Time (Sure Doesn't Feel Like It)
Bad Religion- White Christmas
Jonathan Coulton And John Roderick- Uncle John

Thinking Outside The Box

Both Plato and Sartre had similar ways of sharing a story of enlightenment or thinking. Both stories have a location that is meant to be a metaphor. In "The Allegory Of The Cave", the cave and the shackles are representing the modern way of learning, and how we're supposed to take in what an instructor wants us to learn, later seeing the light means that we go outside the lines and put things in our own perspective. In "No Exit", the location that the main characters meet themselves in is supposed to represent Hell, and the characters having to figure out that they're actually in Hell.

Allegory Of The Cave Sonnet

As I finish reading The Allegory Of The Cave,
 It started to get me thinking,
 The concept was quite interesting,
 And the new thoughts that it gave.
I thought about the allegory itself,
 About learning and how we're taught,
 How learning is about learning someone's certain view or thought,
 And not having certain ideas or views from ourselves.
What if we based off learning from ideas Plato gave,
 Would this idea enlighten us,
 Make us better learners and students,
And be able to escape the cave?
 Hopefully this could makes learning a little more bright,
 And escape the cave and see the light.

 

Brain With 8 Legs

The people that I will be working with in reading are Javi, Kevin, and Mia. To conquer this, we will assign ourselves a certain amount of chapters or pages to read, then use social media, or talk in person to discuss and review what we have read.

Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

1. The Allegory of the Cave is supposed to represent how we see and interpret certain things.

2. Imagery is used in the allegory in the statement of seeing shadows in the cave.

3. It suggests that education is only teaching people what the instructor wants them to learn.

4. The perspective of the cave dwellers are that they can't see much, but since they are shackled, it is the only thing they can see.

5. One thing that shackles the mind is our daily routine, or our daily schedule. It's the same thing we go through all day/week. We get used to it and it becomes a normal thing that doesn't change.

6. The cave prisoners are forced to see what they see, and are forced to know what they see. When the freed prisoner sees something and it's up to them to interpret what they see.

7. Two ways they can occur are belief, and imagination.

8. A prisoner is released, then has to rely on his new perceptions of reality to try and get himself out.

9. I agree. I think there is a difference on how things actually appear, and how we view them, or how they appear to us.

10. Two alternative assumptions could be understanding, and interpretation.

We Hang Together

The key to any strategic alliance is interdependence

This is usually done by businesses, whether a company is helping or competing with another business or company

Darwin's model of evolution shows tendencies of organisms to make relationships with others, where interdependence is also put into play

Trust and communication play significant roles in interdependence

People in this day and age are raised and learn the idea of independence and doing things by oneself

Sonnet Analysis #1

The Sonnet consists of 14 lines 

The Italian Sonnet contains an octet (8 lines), then followed by a sextet (6 lines)

The Shakespearian Sonnet contains three quatrains (4 lines), then followed by a couplet (2 lines)

A Poetic Inquiry

At the beginning of the school year, I posted my big question that went like this:

"They say that music can affect one's personality and the way they view the world. My question is, how? I feel like the music I listen to has no real affect on me, so does it on others?"

While looking through the magical internet, I came across  a sonnet a girl wrote for her English class sophomore year. Why did I choose this one? Because after reading it, it got me thinking...

Lying in bed with these buds in my ears,
I go from dead silent, to alive and fantastic
Feeling vibrations that beat out the tears
In a void of music, I feel captured by magic
This magic is real, and that is no lie
When I play my guitar with that clean open sound
It paints me a picture of a deep purple sky
And bring back my memories, to the past I am bound
But the magic doesn’t always work the same way
I see purple skies, but you’ll see something else
So these magical emotions, all I can say
Is they are not in the music, they are in myself
So as my mind is an endless page of white
I am painting a picture on this dead silent night

When I posted my big question, the only thing I had in mind when posting it were just lyrics to a song. It made me think of some of the anarchy-filled lyrics of some hardcore punk I listen to, along with explicit lyrics, usage of "bad words", and the occasional songs about drugs. But after reading this, I thought about how there's way more than just the lyrics that we enjoy or might inspire us, it's way more than that. I mean, sure we could enjoy the lyrics, but there's more! We can enjoy the instrumentation, or the beat that gets us going, or that awesome guitar solo, or (for me) that super awesome drum part going on in the back. So there's way more to enjoy, and to inspire us in a song or genre that makes us love it. And the thing is, I knew this the whole time, and didn't really take the time to think about it before hand when typing out my big question.

Hamlet Remix

I thought I'd mix it up a bit (see what I did there?), and took my essay, and made it into a Prezi!

http://prezi.com/ruc6pxshuraw/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Hamlet Essay

     The play of Hamlet contains techniques on how people communicate with each other in the play. Three ways include locutionary force, illocutionary force, and perlocutionary force. Along with these, there are also other techniques like self-overhearing that are used as well. So here are how they're put into play into the play.

   Locutionary Force is the ability for language to deliver a message, and the understanding of the message. One example of this is in Act II, Scene II when it becomes apparent that Hamlet might be going insane. Everyone, who includes Polonius, Guildenstern, and Rosencrantz, start to see and become aware that Hamlet is starting to act crazy. While this is what they understand, they are still unsure of what exactly is making him act this way.

   Illocutionary Force is what is done in being said. For example, giving an order, or denying a request. This is shown in Hamlet during Act I, Scene V when Hamlet makes his first encounter with the ghost, which is discovered to be his father. The ghost makes an order for Hamlet to go and kill King Claudius as revenge for Claudius killing King Hamlet. Another example of the illocutionary force is between acts III and IV, when King Claudius makes an order for Hamlet to be sent to England to be executed.

   Perlocutionary Force is what is achieved by being said, or a followed order. Most of the play itself is about this idea, and that is Hamlet's revenge on Claudius. Hamlet's revenge on Claudius has caused quite a few events to occur. First, one event that happens is the play that Hamlet sets up to place guilt onto Claudius. Then after the play, Claudius then gives order to send Hamlet to England, and plots more techniques to try and kill Hamlet, which then leads to the deaths of both Hamlet and Claudius.

   Self-Overhearing is listening to oneself when talking to get a general idea of how they're acting and how they feel. This used throughout the play in soliloquies. Since Hamlet is only talking to himself in a soliloquy, he can understand his feelings and his thoughts. It can easily be seen that he is upset, depressed, and feeling suicidal over the death of his father, and his mission to kill Claudius.

  So these are the techniques used in the play that are used for communication of characters in the play. With the use of locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary forces, and self-overhearing gives the characters understanding of what is going on with each other. And not to mention that it's also used in more than just Hamlet.

Vocab #9

Aficionado- A person who has a large knowledge of something

"Go ask him, he's an aficionado in that sort of thing."

Browbeat- To use angry speech or threats at someone to get them to do something

"His boss would always browbeat him to to get him to go back to work."

Commensurate- Equal to something in size

"I once saw a man who was so tall, he almost seemed commensurate to a building."

Diaphanous- Thin and light cloth

"I only wear this shirt on hot days since it's very diaphanous."

Emolument- The returns arising from office or employment

 The annual emolument for the charity director is usually only a dollar."

Foray- Brief invasion

"The troops forayed into enemy territory."

Genre- A category of literature or art

"That movie should be classified in the horror genre."

Homily- A short talk or sermon

"A guest speaker came in an gave a small homily to the students."

Immure- To close within walls

"When the new building was being built, they did not remove the statue, and chose to immure it in with the new building."

Insouciant- A calm or relaxed state

"After all of his hard work, he felt very incouciant since all the stress is out of the way."

Matrix- Something shaped in a pattern

"His computer screen started looking like a matrix of pixels."

Obsequies- A funeral

"There will be an obsequies held to remember and celebrate his life."

Panache- Lots of energy and style

"Some people say that people in the 80's were very panache."

Persona- The way you act around a certain group of people

"He put on a more happy persona whenever around friends."

Philippic- A declamation of bitterness

"He was eventually kicked out of the event because of his frequent use of philippics."

Prurient- Showing too much interest in sex

"She obvious knew he was prurient because of how he seemed to be staring at her chest the whole date."

Sacrosanct- Too important or respected to be changed

"The town didn't want the new grocery store where the memorial was since they thought it was very sacrosanct."

Systemic- Affecting the whole body

"The disease he had was systemic and started spreading throughout his whole body."

Tendentious- Favoring a certain view over another

"He was more tendentious with his view since he could understand it better than the other."

Vicissitude- An altering change

"He went through a vicissitude and when I saw him again, he was almost a different person."

Tools That Change The Way We Think

I think one way that technology/the internet changes the way we think is the wide variety of resources we now have. If we need or want to look something up using a search device such as Google, we have a wide variety of websites and other sources to get information from. We can compare and contrast info we get from different sites, we can put more pieces together of what information we're looking for and will lead up to a better understanding of what we are trying to learn.

Thoughts On Hamlet (In Progress)

When we began reading Hamlet, I had the basis of what the story was about. Ghost father telling Hamlet to kill Claudius, etc., etc. But I wasn't expecting Hamlet's conflicting emotions to happen. I think the play evolved from Hamlet's revenge on Claudius to Hamlet's emotions over his father's death and seeking revenge and everyone trying to figure out what exactly is going through his mind. As Act IV begins, it seems to take a big shift away from the original plot to focus more on Hamlet's conflict with his family and others who surround him.

Filter Bubbles

A. From this video, I learned that it really seems like we have no privacy anymore. Big sites like Google and Facebook are invading our privacy and grabbing info from us to try and personalize our internet experience.

B. It begins to make me wonder what exactly I can do on a website like Google to have my experience completely modified again. If Google changes my experience on their website, what if I change or do something different than I usually would? Would it completely change again to fit my new interest(s)?

C. What else can these websites see that we don't know about? What other information about ourselves can these websites receive and use or take? And will they likely use this information for something else?

D. I suppose one thing to try is to be more specific with searches. Don't just put a simple key word or words down to search, but put more detain into a search.

The Performative Utterance In Hamlet

Hamlet could also be looked at as a play about a man who can't make what he finds in his mind real

Hamlet is said to be ran by three forces, locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary

Locutionary: The ability for language to deliver a message

Illocutionary: What it done in being said

Perlocutionary: What is achieved in being said

Shakespeare's character's evolve from their own speech and actions

Hamlet shows off "first player's emotions", in which he shows off his emotions from certain actions or his own actions usually with the power of performative mode

What I Think About When I Think About Act III

(Apologies for this being posted later, I was out of town this weekend and was unable to post)

One thing that I'm unsure about is that Hamlet wanted to wait a little while to kill Claudius because he was praying for his sins, and if Hamlet killed him, that would send Claudius to heaven. So if he wanted to wait a while before doing so, then why did he take his chances trying to kill "the rat" he thought to be Claudius?

Literature Analysis #3

Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck

1. The book is about two migrant workers, George and Lennie who are off to work on a farm in California. Both have been friends since childhood and both have interest in buying their own land. Lennie has a mental condition, and relies on George to take care of him. The two get jobs working on a ranch by George telling a false story about how George and Lennie are cousins, and Lennie got his condition by being kicked in the head by a horse at a young age. The two meet everyone else on the ranch. They meet Candy, the handyman with a missing arm, the boss's mean son, Curley, and Curley's wife. One day Candy overhears George and Lennie's plans of buying land. Candy offers his life savings to them as long as he could live on their land, and the three make a pact not to tell anyone of their plans. After the talk, Curley lets his anger out by starting to pick a fight with Lennie. Lennie then breaks Curley's hand when he attacks. Lennie and Curley's wife begin to start talking because of Curley's attack on Lennie, and to try and comfort him after he accidentally kills a dog when trying to pet it. After talking for a while, Curley's wife let's Lennie feel her hair, and then he accidentally breaks her neck when doing so. Lennie flees to the Salinas River after the event happens. George goes to try and calm Lennie down for what he did by telling him about all the future the land they will own, but then proceeds to shoot Lennie in the head, killing him. George covers up the event by telling everyone that he was trying to wrestle a gun away from Lennie.

2. A theme that the novel has is the failure of The American Dream. In the story, both George and Lennie have the dream of buying their own land and living on it, but doesn't happen when Lennie's life is cut short when George shoots him in the end. Another example is during Lennie and Curley's wife's chat, Curley's wife mentions that she completely regrets her marriage and not starting on her acting career, which is also a failure of a dream.

3. The author's tone was an unhappy feeling throughout the novel because of some of the unfortunate events that happened, but didn't give off much of a "dark" feeling to it. Some of the events described that gave it this mood were Lennie talking about how he kills animals when he pets them, Lennie and Curley's fight, and George having to shoot Lennie at the end.

4. One literary device used in the story, and an interesting one is symbolism. In the story, George keeps bringing up the idea of purchasing land to Lennie as a way to make him happy. Their dream is a symbol for possibilities and the goal of freedom that people strive for.

Another device used is a motif. A motif used in the story is loneliness. A few of the characters in the story have admitted to being lonely and having feelings of loneliness. It also eventually meets up with George when he kills Lennie, meaning that George will have to continue his adventure alone

Imagery was used throughout the novel often.

"The Shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones."



1. One example of direct characterization was when the author was describing Lennie.

"Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders, and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws."

Another example with George:

"The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features."
"Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose."

Candy and Curley are both described in directly. They are both addressed as characters in the stories, but there isn't really any full description of either character.

2. The author tends to be more descriptive with George and Lennie, and not with any other character. This is done because of the fact that they are the main characters of the story, of course.

3. The protagonists are both flat and static characters. They both show no change or improvement when the story progresses.

4. I felt like I got to get to know George and Lennie as characters due to their good characterization (with examples shown in #1).

Vocab #8

Abase: To lower in rank

"After goofing off on the job, he was abased down to floor staff from assistant manager."

Abdicate: To leave the position of king or queen

"Recently, the pope abdicated from his position due to sickness."

Abomination: Extreme hate or disgust

"He had a high abomination for the government and the possible ban of guns."

Brusque: Blunt in a matter of speech

"After replying to him in a brusque fashion, he then added on, 'well, just being honest.'"

Saboteur: Someone who destroys something deliberately

"If you get him angry, he becomes a saboteur and will break anything in sight."

Debauchery: Extreme indulgence in sensuality

"Many people travel to Las Vegas to enjoy and indulge in debauchery."

Proliferate: To grow by rapid production of parts or offspring."

"A starfish will proliferate back to itself when it loses a body part."

Anachronism: Something mistakenly out of place

"The history book was anachronism and mixed up two battles in the Civil War."

Nomenclature: A system of names

"Zoology and chemistry have many examples of nomenclature."

Expurgate: To change a work by removing parts that would offend people."

"After looking over the book, the editor expurgated the novel by removing most of the explicit words."

Bellicose: Showing high interest to fight

"He always seemed to bellicose and tried making an argument out of everything."

Gauche: Having no awareness about the proper way to behave

"He never attended a classy dinner party before, so he was gauche and unsure about how polite he had to be."

Rapacious: Always wanting more money or possessions."

"After getting a new, higher-paying job, he became much more greedy and rapacious."

Paradox: Something made up of two opposite things that contradict each other."

"It's a paradox how computers need maintenance when they are supposed to save time for people."

Conundrum: A difficult problem

"Driving my car with a broken brake might be a bit of a conundrum

Anomaly: Something unexpected

"He went to work and had an anomaly because the boss was out and he didn't have to work."

Ephemeral: Lasting for a short time

"Their phone conversation ended up to be ephemeral due to his phone losing connection."

Rancorous: Feeling angry towards something or someone

"He was feeling rancorous towards his friend since his friend accidentally broke his vase."

Churlish: Not polite

"Since he was very gauche, he acted very churlish at the gathering."

Precipitous: Done in a quick way

"Since he woke up late, he got ready for school very precipitously."

Dear Ophelia

Dear O,

You seem to be in quite a quagmire here. These types situations are really hard to resolve. If your father and brother hate this person you're seeing, don't try and keep it private, your father and your father and your brother must respect the fact that you two are in love and that nothing can change it. They can just suck it up and deal with it. It's not like they're threatening you for anything if you continue to see this guy.

Hope this advice helped.

-Writer

Literary Fiction And Empathy

I think that fiction makes it easier to understand others is that it can be written in a way to where we can completely see in their mind and what they think or feel. Using Hamlet as an example, Hamlet's soliloquy is a section where Hamlet tells all of his feelings and how upset about the death of his father and the upcoming marriage of his mother and his uncle. With that soliloquy, we get a general idea of what Hamlet is feeling, and that gives us a real feeling to a fictional character, it gives us a feeling of sympathy for Hamlet because we know how sad he is feeling about all the events that have happened and that are happening.

Green Eggs And Hamlet

A. I'll be fully honest, I really know nothing about the actual story of Hamlet. All I know is that it is a very well known work written by Shakespeare.

B. William Shakespeare is a famous author who has written many well-known plays and tragedies including Romeo And Juliet, and Julius Caesar.

C. Students tend to frown upon Shakespeare (or at least I do) because of the old English that it's written in. For example, usage of terms like "where art thou?", and so on and so forth. This tends to be overwhelming for some (or just like I said, at least me), and I'll admit it, it can get pretty uninteresting too.

D. To make it an "amazing" experience, maybe we should watch parts of an actual production of the play.

Vocab #7

Shenanigans- Mischief

"Those pesky kids are up to their silly shenanigans again."

Ricochet- Rebounding or deflecting  off a wall or surface

"The tennis ball began to ricochet and bounce off the walls when it was thrown."

Schism- Divisions usually between two different parties

"An ongoing schism in our society are both the Democratic and Republican parties"

Eschew- To avoid or stay away from

"After getting a cold, everyone eschewed from him to be sure they didn't get sick as well."

Plethora- Overabundance; excess

"The band had a plethora of t shirts, so they lowered the prices of them so more people would buy them."

Ebullient- Overflowing with enthusiasm

"He was ebullient to put his time into community service."

Garrulous: Excessively talkative in a rambling manor

"Mr. Hutton's annual beginning of the year speech to his students are always quite garrulous."

Harangue- A scolding or long verbal attack

"The argument between the two ended up becoming a giant harangue."

Interdependence- A condition on relying on one another

"The group promised each other that there would be strong interdependence when they worked on their project together."

Capricious- Indicative of a sudden change

"Weather in Santa Maria can be very capricious, with one day being hot in the high 80's, then the next being very cold and windy."

Loquacious- Talking freely or being talkative

"Mr. Wagner can be very loquacious in class when he gets started on a certain subject."
(Sorry Wags, love ya, but I thought this would be a good example...)

Ephemeral- Lasting a very short time

"Their conversation was very ephemeral because it was short when one of them had to leave."

Inchoate- Not finished or fully developed

"Even though the new MP3 player model was inchoate, the company still decided to release it anyway."

Juxtapose- To place together side by side

"All the books on the shelf were all juxtaposed together."

Perspicacious- Having a keen mental perception or understanding

"He was perspicacious and honest enough to address himself as the danger of the environment."

Codswallop- Nonsense

"What's with all this codswallop that you're suggesting me?"

Mungo- Low quality wool made from rags or waste

"This sweater made from mungo isn't really comfortable."

Sesquipedalian- Usage of long words

"Recently, he's started feeling rather whimsy and has started to be rather sesquipedalian."

Wonky- Shaky or unsteady

"Sometimes, caffeine can make someone very wonky after drinking."

Diphthong- A gliding speech sound varying continuously in phonetic quality

"The production of diphthong is a glide between two sounds."

If I Just Had More Time

Studying for the midterm, there was one BIG mistake I made, and that was studying all the words the night before. If I were smart, instead, I would've taken each vocab list and studied one or two each night, THEN put them all together on the day/night before the midterm. Hopefully I will not make the same mistake again...

Literary Analysis #2

The story for this literary analysis is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

1. In the summer of 1922, Nick Carraway moves from Minnesota to New York to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg District of Long Island. His neighbor is a man by the name of Jay Gatsby, who has a large mansion and has extravagant parties every weekend. Nick eventually gets invited to one of Gatsby's parties, along with Jordan Baker, a woman that Nick started dating due to his second cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom introducing her to Nick. Nick and Jordan run into each other at the party, and end up meeting Gatsby himself, and starts getting to know him better. Gatsby reveals to Jordan that he knew Daisy in Louisville in 1917, and that the parties that he host are an attempt to try and impress Daisy and win her back. Gatsby asks Nick to try and reunite him and Daisy. Nick does so by inviting the two over tea. Gatsby and Daisy then reconnect and begin to have an affair. Daisy's husband, Tom becomes fully aware of her affair and becomes angry with both of them, despite the fact that Tom himself is also having an affair with a woman named Myrtle. Tom confronts Gatsby about their affair, and tries to convince Daisy that Gatsby is a criminal and has bootlegged alcohol. Nick, Tom, and Jordan find out that Myrtle, the woman that Tom is also seeing was killed by being hit by Gatsby's car. While it was Daisy driving the car, Gatsby takes full blame for it. Tom then tells Myrtle's husband, George about the incident, and George ends up shooting Gatsby in his own pool. Nick holds a small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and then moves back to the Midwest because of how sick he felt about all of the events that happened.

2. The theme of the story is the decline of the American dream. The story shows that The Roaring Twenties wasn't all glamour, and that there was much more darker things going on at the time.

3. The novel sometimes had a slight upbeat tone, probably to show off the feel of The Roaring Twenties, but most of the novel had a dark tone, which helped show the theme of the story

Some examples of the more happier tone:

"Laughter is easier by the minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word." (P. 40)

"The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter..." (P. 40) 

And the more darker tone:

"It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete." (P. 162)

4. Imagery was used throughout the whole story to try to get a picture of whatever Nick saw

"...and then, excited with triumph, glide on through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light." (P. 41)

Another device used was the point of view. The book is all based on the point of view of Nick, so the reader can feel the exact emotions of what it's be like to live through that period.

In the story, a flashback is used when Gatsby talks about his previous experience with Daisy.

The characters in the story are in some way a Synecdoche. The characters represent greediness and adultery, which they commit in the story.

1. Two examples of  direct characterization are the characters Nick and Daisy. Most of the first chapter is basically Nick introducing himself and almost telling his life story and why he's moved to West Egg. He also goes into detail on Daisy, probably due to the fact that she has a larger role in the book.

Two examples of indirect characterization are on the characters Jay Gatsby and George. George had litter characterization since he only had a small role in the story, and Gatsby had little characterization because it gives people a mysterious vibe from Gatsby like Nick felt in the story.

2. Fitzgerald didn't have any change in syntax or diction when switching over to a different character.

3. Nick is a static/flat character. Along with other main characters show no change at all during the story. The only thing that changes about Nick is how disgusted he feels about the West Egg and all the terrible events that happened.

4. I feel like I really got to know Nick Carraway. This is mainly because of the first chapter when Nick introduces himself and tells the reader his story and why he's coming to West Egg. Here's a small sample:

""My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations. The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Beccleuch...

The Comparison's Tale

The characters we've gone over in The Canterbury Tales all have similar tones and themes of storytelling. The cook and the monk are both similar. Both the chef and the monk both tell stories that have moral meaning or life lesson to them, that is targeted at the characters, and also possibly the readers as well. In The Cook's Tale, while no theme is actually mentioned, a theme that could be taken from it is to always be focused to your work, even though there could be another theme along with the story if it were continued. In The Monk's Tale, he tells a few different stories of tragedy, and the theme in all of them is how success or glory is fickle, and anything can happen to it.

Tale Of A Canterbury Tale

For this assignment, my group chose The Monk's Tale

In the prologue of The Monk's Tale, the host and the monk start talking and really begin to hit it off, so the monk promises to tell the host the life story of Edward The Confessor, but instead tells several different tragedies. He told stories of Lucifer, Sampson, Hercules, Nabugodonosor, Cenobia, Bernabo Visconti, Ugolino Of Pisa, Nero, and Holofernes.

Chaucer's point of having the monk tell all these tales is to give a lesson to the readers and the characters not to put trust in blind prosperity, and that fortune and success is fickle and that it can change at any time.

Character Study (III)

As my group talked today, we got to talking about where we are putting in our East/West characters in. So this is a bit more in the story.

The three characters that we chose to be in this were Dan Smith, Eeeeeeeeee-Eeeeeeeee, and Davoin Shower-Handel

Smith and Shower-Handel are both policemen that are chasing after Nakesha's character because of her escaping from her city. Eeeeeeeeeee-Eeeeeeeee is a friend of X'O and Sam's due to the fact they are all in a hip hop group. Then as mentioned in the last post (I think?) Smith and Shower-Handel are chasing after Nakesha, then runs into the three of us getting out of a gig in France, and she asks us to protect her. After trying some distractions, I end up shining my bald head blinding the two. As she then comes with us on our bus, she tells us her story, and how she's on the run, and that a voice in her head influenced her to do it. But it wasn;t a voice in her head, it was Lissette (who's character is an ant) telling her to do these things. The group is now driving down to Spain. And that's about what we have for now.

Character Study (II)

Right now in my group's (Me, Ricky, Nakesha, and Lissette) story all the characters are being put into place. Nakesha's character is currently on the run from the police, and runs into a hip hop concert that's going on. The band playing happens to have Ricky (X'O) and me in the band. This eventually leads to us having to defeat the police and going on the run with Nakesha. There's still a few gaps we need to fill in the story, but it's going good.

CHARACTER STUDY

Also along this journey was a man by the name of Sam. From where he is from, he is known as the most handsomest, bravest and most importantly handsome men around. He has been quite a hero, like the time he saved a giant group of orphans from a burning building, or the time that he lured someone by jumping off a building by playing an excellent cover of "Jumper" by Third Eye Blind.

Along with his good looks, he was quite buff and always told people that he lifts, which he does. He also had a bright shining bald head, so shiny, you could see your reflection in it. It has been told by others that if you rub his head, and get a touch of his magic hair, it will grant you wishes. But needless to say, no one ever got a wish granted.

Canterbury Tales

Something that really stuck out to me in the story is the use of irony throughout the prologue. I thought it was quite humorous and grabbed my attention and grabbed my attention because of the humor, like the monk being a hunter, and the nun having a lot of jewelry.

If we were to look into more of the story, I'd like to see the story of the monk, and see if he has more ironic lifestyle of a monk

Netvibes

I have now officially made a Netvibes dashboard. Right now it's just plain and simple. I have the weather, a couple of news sources to check up on current events, and I also put in the little email panel in there just take a quick email check. This is good for now. I plan on expanding and adding a couple more things in there as I get more used to it and explore it more.

Vocab #6

As a note, instead of copying and pasting my last ones, I'm going back and redoing all of the definitions and sentences. If any are similar, or even exactly the same, then it's completely coincidental, no sarcasm.

Obsequious: Obedient is an annoying fashion

"The staff is very superb, they are very attentive without being obsequious"

Beatitude: Supreme blessedness or happiness

"When I approached him, he greeted me with much beatitude, which made my day a lot better."

Bete Noire: A person or thing that one dislikes or dreads

"My math class is my least favorite class because I can't stand my teacher, he is a bete noire of mine."

Dank: Unpleasantly damp, musty or humid

"The old cellar was quite cold and dank when we went to explore it."

Ecumenical: General or universal

"Every book the author writes has a theme intended to be ecumenical."

Fervid: Heated in spirit or enthusiasm

"The general store has been open for twenty years, definitely due to the owner's fervid hard work."

Fetid: Having bad or offensive odor

"The cheese was quite delicious, but was also quite fetid when opened from the wax."

Gargantuan: Gigantic

"The building was quite gargantuan being about 38 stories high."

Heyday: A period of great success

"The owner reflected on the heyday of his store when he'd get about 700 customers a day."

Incubus: Something that worries something greatly

"Jim had an Incubus of having his essay done by the deadline."

Infrastructure: The basic framework of an organization

"The organization has been around for quite some time, probably because of their good infrastructure."

Inveigle: To convince by flattery

"The magician with his perfect charms was always able to inveigle people from the audience to be volunteers."

Kudos: Honor, glory, or acclaim

"He has received many kudos for his hard work in science."

Lagniappe: An unexpected benefit

"After doing his essay and finding out it wasn't due the day he though, he got a lagniappe of having no homework the next day."

Prolix: To extend to unnecessary length

"The teacher prolixed the assignment and added 4 more pages of reading."

Protege: Someone under protection of something

"He was a protege to his insurance company in case he was ever in an accident."

Prototype: An early form of something, that a model is based off of

"When at the factory, you can always see some early prototypes of motor vehicles."

Sycophant: A self-seeking servile flatterer

"Everyone remembered him as his sycophant, or his sidekick at times."

Tautology: Repeating a general idea but with different wording or phrases

"The teacher frequently used tautology on his students in hope they would understand better."

Truckle: To submit or yield obsequiously

"He always tried to truckle poor ideas to his boss, and always was rejected."

Accolade: An award or honor

"The Nobel Peace prize is one of the highest accolades that one can receive."

Acerbity: Harshness or severity

"For some reason, after not seeing his friend for quite some time, his friend greeted him with much unneeded acerbity."

Attrition: A decrease in numbers

"Sales in watches went through a large attrition since they put a clock on the smart phone."

Bromide: One who is boring

"Everyone avoided him at parties and gatherings because he was very bromide, like telling very uninteresting stories."

Chauvinist: One who has a lot of pride over their country

"Bill was quite the chauvinist when it came to America. He always was the first to launch fireworks on The Fourth Of July."

Chronic: Recurring or constant

"She has had a long history of chronic migraines."

Expound: To explain in detail

"Since his brother didn't understand, he had to expound the instructions over and over again."

Factionalism: Being or belonging to a faction

"Factionalism was quite common in early forms of government."

Immaculate: Spotlessly clean

"His mom wouldn't let him have friends over until the entire house was immaculate."

Imprecation: A curse

"The team was having their worst season yet, they were under a terrible imprecation."

Ineluctable: Incapable of being evaded

"It always seemed that she was ineluctable when she went out in public, and always saw people she knew."

Mercurial: Lively, animated

"No one ever understood why he was so mercurial, even on the earliest of mornings."

Palliate: To relieve without curing

"He thought telling his friend jokes would palliate his friend's depression."

Protocol: An original draft

"The team reviewed the protocol of the document and talked about what needed improving."

Resplendent: Shining brilliant

He was quite a resplendent student, having a GPA of 4.3

Stigmatize: To put a mark or disgrace upon

"The murders he committed stigmatized his family to a great extent."

Sub Rosa: Secret or private

"The couple kept their engagement sub rosa until they found an appropriate time to announce it to their friends and family."

Vainglory: Excessive pride over an achievement

"He had a large vainglory over his good test score that lasted for a few days."

Vestige: A trace of something that was there before

"Fossils are a vestige of the dinosaurs."

Volition: Choosing or making a decision on one's will

"She left home and moved away on her own volition."

WHAT A CHARACTER

To me, a character that struck out to me would be Beowulf. I think the main reason was because I like the way he was characterized in the story of Beowulf, and in my mind, he easily stuck out because he showed good example of a dynamic character. As talked about, he proved to be quite cocky in the beginning of the story, and as the story progressed after his battle with Grendel, he started to mature more and realize what power he had. To me, the reason why it also stuck was because it gave me a good understanding of the dynamic character.

DECLARATION OF LEARNING INDEPENDENCE

I, Sam Wellard, take such tools of open source learning as my way of education. With these, I will try to reach one of the highest goals that I have in class, which to prove to myself that I can be a great student, and along with that, I hope to use such knowledge and skills we receive in this class, and use it for the future that lies ahead, which will be for college, and I will apply such skills to whatever course or class needed.

Vocab #5

Obsequious: Being obedient in a rather irritating way

"The servant was quite obsequious by following the king's every step while trying to serve him."

Beatitude: Supreme happiness

"He was filled with mush beatitude when he got a 97% on his math test."

Bete Noire: A person or thing that someone strongly dislikes or dreads

"Oh, he's a bete noire, from my view, he's always so rude to me."

Bode: To portend

The news bode quite well for him

Dank: Unpleasantly moist, humid, or damp

"The rain and and the cold temperature made the whether quite dank."

Ecumenical: General or universal

"The author intended to have his book give a ecumenical message to it."

Fervid: Heated or hot

"My ears are quite fervid, that means someone's talking about me!"

Fetid: Having An offensive odor

"While the cheese had quite a unique taste, it was also very fetid."

Gargantuan: Giant, enormous

"The new building across the street is very gargantuan, having 40 stories."

Heyday: A period of great success

"I fondly remember the heyday of my business, where we had about 600 customers coming in each day.''

Incubus: (Well besides a really, really good alternative rock band) A nightmare

"In her sleep, it seemed she was sleeping quite peacefully until her dream turned into an incubus, and woker her up."

Infrastructure: The basic framework or features to a system or organization

"The city has a well-developed infrastructure."

Inveigle: To convince

"He had to inveigle the city to donate money for funding for a park."

Kudos: Honor, glory, acclaim

"He was given much kudos for his study in antibiotics."

Lagniappe: An unexpected benefit

"After Jimmy crammed in doing all of his homework, the next day, the teacher said it was not due until the day after next, so he had much free time that night, which was a lagniappe."

Prolix: Extended to unnecessary length

"The teacher prolixed the assignment by adding more pages of reading."

Protege: A person under care of something

"He was a protege to his car insurance."

An original model for something, which something is later based off of

"The company built prototypes to a new car which is only in designing stage."

Sycophant: A self-seeking, servile flatterer

"People always remembered him as the sycophant, the loyal sidekick to Bill."

Tautology: Needless repetition of an idea

"His idea went through much tautology, because he wanted to be sure he got his idea in his friend's head."

Truckle: To submit obsequiously

"He always truckled the most terrible ideas to his boss."
 

Literature Analysis #1

On the book Yes Man by Danny Wallace1. Yes Man is about Daniel Wallace, and how he lived quite a redundant and boring life. He doesn't get out too often, and usually declines offers from friends for social outings, and usually likes to be alone. One day, he was riding on the bus, and a random stranger by him randomly says aloud, "Say yes more,", and all of a sudden, it was like an epiphany to him. He then decided to say "yes" more for one year, his year as a "Yes Man". Just because of that, him saying "yes", led to more wonderful opportunities. 

2. Well, I think the theme right here is pretty obvious, and the theme of the story here is what the random man on the bus said, and that is to say "yes" more. Reading all the opening opportunities for Daniel, and a couple life-changing things that has happened to Daniel, it can really inspire us to just say the simple word, "yes" more often. You'll never know what will happen.

3.The author's tone in the story is quite upbeat and happy, mainly due to his recent epiphany of what he heard on the bus. He seems quite enthusiastic when talking. Here are some examples:

"...sometimes when I'm excited and inspired, I tend to leap up stair, when should realize that I live on the fourth floor and such exertions do not become me."

"Suddenly, I wanted to do that. I wanted to paint a man's privates blue and handcuff him to buffet cars!"

(Reaction to an email simply saying "do you have an invention?")"I bristled in excitement. Now, technically, no, I didn't have an invention. I had no invention at all. But this tiny advert was an opportunity. An opportunity to try my hand at something new. I could invent something! Maybe that's why I was put here on Earth! To be an inventor!"

4. First off, one literary element right off the bat here is how Daniel is a dynamic character. He went from his non-outgoing lifestyle, but when saying "yes" more, he became quite a happier and enthusiastic man, and it showed. 

In the story, a few hyperboles were used, which were used to show off his excitement of saying "yes" more. For example, when he hears the phrase, while it was a small simple sentence, he went out to call it "an epiphany", and was thrilled about doing that, also shown in question #3.

The story has a quite uplifting mood throughout it. The author's purpose of doing that is to show that he has become much happier since doing his year as a Yes Man.

The narrator of the story is the author himself, which gives a much better understanding of his story since it's from his point of view.

Right in the first chapter, the author uses a narrative method, and easily explains the setting and general plot of what will happen.

The author frequently uses amplification throughout the book, so he can give more insight to what he thinks, instead of having simple plain sentences. One example is in Chapter 1, page 5, describing what he felt after hearing "say yes more".

"But it's still an epiphany. And I'm still smiling from what I've heard, smiling from what I've learned. I started to wonder whether anyone else is feeling the same."

There is a small part of the story that reflects tragedy. In Chapter 24, his time of being a Yes Man ends when he makes a refusal to his girlfriend for a trip to see her in Australia, which then their relationship fell apart temporarily, and ended Danny's year as a Yes Man.

The author uses many denotations throughout the book. These denotations are mostly his choices of saying "yes" to offers. For example, starting on Chapter 2, page 19, when he replies "yes" to all emails he receives.

Last, the author includes a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue at the beginning describes a little bit of what is to come in the story, and the epilogue at the end talks about what happened after his time of being a Yes Man.

ALL OF THE ABOVE

My answers (with correction if wrong)

1. E (C)
2. A
3. D (C)
4. E
5. B (D)
6. D
7. D (E)
8. B
9. B (E)
10. E (C)
11. D
12. B
13. D (B)
14. B (C)
15. E (A)
16. B
17. C
18. D (E)
19. C (A)
20. E (B)
21. E
22. B (E)
23. D (A)
24. A
25. C
26. E
27. E (D)
28. D (C)
29. A
30. D (B)
31. D (B)
32. E (D)
47. E (B)
48. B (A)
49. E (C)
50. D
51. B (C)
52. B
53. D (E)
54. D (B)
55. D (A)
56. C (B)
57. C
58. A (D)
59. D (E)
60. E (B)
61. E (A)

So I won't lie, I wasn't really expecting to do that well on this. One thing that probably attributed to this was that the day I did this, I was under a lot of stress for a lot of other homework I did that day, so I wasn't quite plugged in when doing this. However, I could probably do a lot better on something like this when I'm more plugged in, focused, and less stressed.

Vocab #4

Accolade- An award or honor

"He has received an accolade for his research in medicine."

Acerbity- Harshness or severity

"He was showing much acerbity when he told the student how bad he did on his test."

Attrition- A decrease in numbers, or size

"Sales of watches have gone through an attrition since people have clocks on their phone."

Bromide- Someone who is boring

"The people at the party think he's quite bromide because he says quite uninteresting stories."

Chauvinist- One who is very patriotic

"He is quite the chauvinist, and goes all out on The 4th Of July."

Chronic- Constant, ongoing/continuing

"He's been having a history of chronic migraines for 3 years."

Expound- Explain or state in detail

"He had to expound to his friend the directions to the model airplane."

Factionalism- Being in part of a faction or location

"Factionalism was common in early politics."

Immaculate- Spotlessly clean

"Mom would not let friends come over unless the house was immaculate and presentable."

Imprecation- A curse

"Because he was a bad athlete, the school's soccer team was under an imprecation, and couldn't win."

Ineluctable- Incapable of being evaded

"Whenever he went in public, he was ineluctable of seeing friends and people he knew."

Mercurial- Animated, lively

"No one understood why he was so Mercurial even in the earliest of mornings."

Palliate- To relieve without curing

"Jim palliated Bob's sadness by telling him funny jokes."

Protocol- A first version, or rough draft

"The iPhone was only the protocol for the current age of smart phones."

Resplendent- Shining brilliant

"Danny was quite resplendent, and got a GPA of 4.6, and had straight A's."

Stigmatize- To set a mark or disgrace upon

"The murder the father committed stigmatized all of his family."

Sub Rosa- Secret or private

"The couple made their engagement sub rosa, and didn't announce it until 3 weeks later."

Vainglory- Excessive pride over one's achievement

"He was being very vainglory over his straight A's and bragged about it for 2 weeks."

Vestige- A mark or trace of something that is no longer present or in existence

"Fossils are a vestige of dinosaurs that roamed the earth many years ago."

Volition- A choice made by will

"She left home to move across the nation by her own volition."

Beowulf Essay

As my group mentioned in class when going over an idea for an essay topic for this essay (which we greatly appreciate having it become this essay), we think that Beowulf easily relates to the modern super hero, Iron Man (comparing to the first Iron Man movie released in 2008). My group and I think this because we believe that the two have similar traits, characteristics, and stories with them. So now such traits and similarities deserved to be viewed now.

First off, both stories start out with the same characterization for both characters. Both characters start out with a sort of cockiness, and slightly large egos as well. In Beowulf, Beowulf starts out the story with this trait because he thinks that he's good enough to go off and fight Grendel, also does so with no armor. In Iron Man, Tony Stark has a similar large ego because of the fact that he's rich, has great technology, and also the fact that he runs one of the biggest companies in the world. So right off the bat, we have a similarity with the two.

Next, both characters have a change in character as the story progresses. The two are good examples of a dynamic character. In this change, the characters have an event happen to them that causes them to go through a state of maturing. In Beowulf, Beowulf has that happen after the defeat of Grendel. When he kills Grendel, he begins to mature into more of a hero, so he becomes more courageous to fight other creatures and save people. In Iron Man, when Tony Stark is kidnapped by The Ten Rings, his whole experience of being kidnapped and escaping was quite changing for him. On his return home, it made him realize that he has all this power, and becomes a more mature man, and become more serious in himself, and his company. He becomes less cocky, and also loses some of his party mentality as well. This proves both characters are good dynamic characters.

Last, both stories have a similar story/plot ending. Both stories end with a battle of some sort over protecting someone or something. In Beowulf, Beowulf (which is now the grandson of the original Beowulf) has to go and defeat a dragon and protect all the Danes from danger. In Iron Man, Tony Stark has to defeat Obadiah Stane, and his Iron Man suit copy, because Tony needs to be sure that Obadiah doesn't become head of the Stark company. Both Beowulf and Stark claim victory over the antagonist they fight, even though Beowulf becomes weak and dies as well.

And to wrap it up, those are 3 examples on how the story of Beowulf and Iron Man relate to each other. Together, the both have common character traits, both are good examples of dynamic characters, and how they both have similar plots. So, perhaps my group was right, Iron Man was a pretty good example for this essay.

WILL STUDY FOR FOOD

Taking a quick scroll through a list of scholarships and reading through a few of them, all I can say is that it's really overwhelming to look through all of them. So many of them with good causes and amounts of money, it can be very hard to choose from so many of them. But for any scholarship that I am rewarded, I will probably mainly put it toward tuition and housing. In my opinion, these are the most costly out of the expenses for colleges, and with how our economy is right now, it's gonna be quite hard to pay it out of pocket. I think some money from scholarships will also go to books as well, since textbooks are also really expensive, which a lot of people know as a true statement. I feel as though the other costs like food and drink will be a lot easier to come by.

Vocab #3

1.Apostate: One who forsakes their religion or party

"When he turned 18, he became an apostate and completely spoke out about how bad his religion is."

2. Effusive: Demonstrative of emotion

"Her crying outburst today was quite effusive."

3. Impasse: A position of no escape

"He knew that his gathering with his in-laws was going to be impasse."

4. Euphoria: A feeling of happiness or confidence

"She was filled with euphoria when she was going up to accept her award."

5. Lugubrious: Mournful or gloomy

"He was feeling very lugubrious after the passing of his father."

6. Bravado: A swaggering display of courage

"He committed such a bravado when he saved the children from a burning building."

7. Consensus: Majority of opinion

"There was a consensus within the group that they would order sausage and onion for their pizza."

8. Dichotomy: Division of two parts

"The nearby ground went through a dichotomy and split in two."

9. Constrict: To compress or shrink

"He compressed the clay by squeezing it in his hands."

10. Gothic: Not pertaining to style of architecture

"The building was quite gothic when compared to the other buildings."

11. Punctilio: A fine point or detail in ceremony or procedure

"He had to be sure he did such exact punctilio during the yearly ceremony since it was such tradition for years."

12. Metamorphosis: A change in form or structure

"After construction, the building went through a full metamorphosis and looked completely new."

13. Raconteur: A person skilled in relating stories

"He was a raconteur for comparing the two stories themes together."

14. Sine Qua Non: An indispensable condition, element, or factor

"His appearance at every party was such a sine qua non."

15. Quixotic: Something visionary and unrealistic

"His dream of taking a trip to Hawaii was quite quixotic due to the economy."

16. Vendetta: A private feud in a family

"There had been a long vendetta in the family due to a small simple insult toward their mother."

17. Non Sequitur: An illogical statement having nothing to do with the conversatioin

"He was talking about his day at work, but randomly switched over to taking about cars, which was quite non sequitur."

18. Mystique: An idea based on an object or person

"Darwin's theory is a good example of a mystique."

19. Quagmire: A difficult situation

"Whether or not to go drive his car with low gas was quite a quagmire."

20. Parlous: Dangerous

"It's very parlous to ride a bike with no helmet."

WHY THIS BOOK?

There are a couple reasons why I decided to choose "Yes Man" by Danny Wallace. One small reason was because the movie, that I'll be honest about. But the main reason is because I find the concept kind of interesting. Saying "yes" to more things in life might seem kind of simple, but when you think about it, it could expand to more opportunities in life. It could open our horizons and help us discover new ideas, interests, and whatnot. It could even change our life if it goes far enough. I hope that  after reading this, it will have great impact and influence on me, and hopefully others that read it will feel the same too.

Vocab #2

1. Accoutrements: Personal clothing or accessories

"She had her accoutrements all packed up for the trip."

2. Apogee: Highest or most distant point, climax

"I was on the edge of my seat around the apogee of the movie."

3. Apropros: Fitting, at the right time

"The length of the lesson was apropros because the bell rang as soon as the teacher was done."

4. Bicker: A peeving arguement

"The two were bickering over where to put the new couch."

5. Coalesce: To grow into one body

"The two lakes coalesced into one after a few years."

6. Contretemps: An embarrassing mischance

"He caused small contretemps when he spilled his drink."

7. Convolution: Rolled up or coiled condition:

The aluminum foil was now in a convolution form when it was rolled up

8. Cull: To choose, select

"He had to cull what to get on his sandwich."

9. Disparate: Essentially different

"His shirt with red stripes was quite disparate than the others."

10. Dogmatic: Pertaining to

"That is the shirt of Steve"

11. Licentious: Unrestrained by law

"He was licentious to kill a man."

12. Mete a limit or boundary

"He had a set mete, and was not allowed to go to certain locations."

13. Noxious: Harmful or dangerous to health

"Being a coal miner is quite noxious because of what you breath in."\

14. Polemic: An argument about a certain opinion

"There's been a long time polemic about the rights of same-sex marriage."

15. Populous: Large population

"Los Angeles is quite populous with over 4,000,00 people."

16. Probity: Honesty

"He had much probity to say his true feelings."

17. Repartee: A quick, witty reply

"He gave quite a repartee to end the argument and win."

18. Supervene: To occur unexpectedly

"It was quite supervene when the light went out in the classroom."

19. Turncate: To shorten by cutting

"He turncated the banana by using a scissor."

20. Unimpeachable: Above suspicion

"Since he was telling the truth, he was quite unimpeachable of telling any other lie."

Beowulf Questions

These questions were answered by myself, working alone

(Heorot Is Attacked)

1. It was Grendel that attacked it. It was about 12 years. The Danes bailed and left.

(The Hero Comes To Heorot)

1. Beowulf starts an army of 14, and sails over to fight.

2. They meet Hrothgar lieutenant. He demands to know who they are. Beowulf informs him that they are going to help the king.

3. Higlack is who stops them. Beowulf tells Hrothgar how he will defeat Grendel.

(Fight With Grendel)

1. He goes into battle without any armor.

2. Grendel enters, and eats one of Beowulf's soldiers. He disarms Grendel by bounding his claws. Grendel tried escaping, but was too wounded and died. He left behind an arm.

(Another Attack)

1. She shows up to claim Grendel's arm.

2. Grendel's mother killed a close friend of Hrothgar.

(Beowulf Fights Grendel's Mother)

3.He takes Hrunting, his sword.

4. Grendel and his mother lived in a battle hall.

5. The sword does no damage, and he throws it aside.

6. He escaped because of the metal on his chest.

7. His kills her with a sword on the wall. Her body fell to the floor lifeless. He took Grendel's head. The sword he used to kill her dissolved.

8. They were excited to see him because they thought he wouldn't return.

(Beowulf Attacks The Dragons)

2. The dragon melts his shield, and his sword does no damage. His companions ran for their lives into the woods. Wiglaf stood with the king and slayed the dragon. He told them how disappointed he was. He then helps slay the dragon.

3. Beowulf and Wiglaf slay the dragon, and Beowulf is very wounded.

4. Beowulf wants Wiglaf to get the treasure from the dragon's lair. When he sees the gold, he thanks god. He wants to be burned, and he wants a large tomb built in a tower.

Reading Notes (Pages 30-61)

Tristia:

Talks about changes in weather and amount of daylight during the day since he's arrived in his new home

Goes on to talk about the people who live in the area, calls them words like "barbarians" even though they own more of the houses in the area

He say that in his opinion, everyone else thinks he's the barbarian, and how he's mocked because of the latin he speaks, and the fact he was exiled from Rome

Beowulf:

Grendel is a monster that lives in the darkness, who was born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by god

Grendel came to Herot and killed 30 men

Went on fighting many wars and winning, nothing could get him to start a truce 

Beowulf gathers an army of men to defeat Grendel

After a long battle, Beowulf, and his army kill Grendel

Beowulf is now informed about the lurking of two other monsters, one being Grendel's mother

He goes out on a journey to kill Grendel's mother

Beowulf goes and defeats the two other monsters

Beowulf becomes honored Hrothgar, and then becomes king

He goes off to fight a dragon

He defeats the dragon, but becomes very wounded and dies, The Geats burn Beowulf's body

Beowulf Notes

We're written in old fashion English

Had much more impact when said orally

Had no real distinction between history or myth, can't be accurately described as fact or fiction

A narrative composed with episodes, people, creatures, praise, blame, or comedy

Makes an icon of a former age

Built between the Pre-Christian, and Christian worlds historically

MY OPINION ISN'T (A) RIGHT

Introdependance- Having responsibility not only to yourself, but others

Limbic- The part of your brain that controls emotion

Schema- The routines or structures we use to go on with the world

"Fiction is the lie that tells the truth."

Reflections On Week One

1. Right now, there is nothing that can affect my participation in this class. I have all the tools necessary to be sure that work gets accomplished.

2. I am sad to say that I have yet to experience a changing learning experience yet. However, I hope that this class will change that for me.

3. One thing in this class to look forward to is improving my experience taking the AP exam, in hope to get a good score on the AP exam

Vocabulary #1

1. Adumbrate- To foreshadow

"The teacher adumbrated to his class that there would be homework based on what they read in class."

2. Apotheosis- Elevation to divine status

"This is the literary apotheosis of a 'fish out of water' story."

3. Ascetic- Strict self-denial as a measure of personal discipline

"Feeling fat, Jim went on an ascetic diet of nothing but fruits and grains."

4. Bauble- Trinket

"I bought a couple little baubles at a tent at the fair."

5. Beguile- To lead by deception

"She was so persuasive, she was able to beguile her friends to do most of her homework."

6. Burgeon- To send forth a new growth

"The market for smart phones has burgeoned in recent years."

7. Complement- Filling up, or completing something

"His hat was a perfect complement to his shirt."

8. Contumacious- Stubbornly disobedient

"The young buy was rather contumacious when he refused to pick up the piece of paper when his mother asked him."

9. Curmudgeon- An ill-tempered old man

"The curmudgeon that lives down the street does nothing but sit on his front porch, and yell at the kids that go on his lawn."

10. Didactic- Designed or intended to teach

"Long after the death of Poe, his work became didactic to show students dark romanticism."

11. Disingenuous- Giving a false appearance

"He thought Bill was a nice guy, but it turned out he was quite disingenuous, and was quite a rude person."

12. Exculpate- To clear from alleged fault or guilt

"The man was exculpated by the court when it was proved he was not guilty."

13. Faux Pas- A social blunder

"He made quite a faux pas when he accidentally arrived early to the party."

14. Fulminate- To say or send out with denunciation

"The speaker was quite fulminating when talking about the dangers of smoking."

15. Fustian- High-flown or affected writing or speech

"The writing of the author was quite fustian because of his past experiences."

16. Hauteur- Arrogance

"She looked at him with the hauteur of someone who is usually obeyed."

17. Inhibit- To prohibit from doing something

"Most grocery stores inhibit people riding skateboards nearby."

18. Jeremiad- A prolonged lamentation or complaint

"A jeremiad was filed to the manager of the local hardware store by an angry customer who was unsatisfied with customer service."

19. Opportunist- One who likes to take many opportunities

"He was quite an opportunist, and wanted to try to strive for the manager position."

20. Unconscionable- Not guided or controlled by conscience

"He was rather unconscionable when he went out and blew his money on a new car."

1987 AP Exam

1. E
2. A
3. D
4. E
5. B
6. D
7. D
8. B
9. B
10. E
11. D
12. B
13. D
14. B
15. E

Seemed pretty simple so far, though a little trouble was had on 15

16. B
17. C
18. D
19. C
20. E
21. E
22. B
23. D
24. A
25. C
26. E
27. E
28. D
29. A
30. D
31. D
32. E

I found these ones to be a bit harder.

47. E
48. B
49. E
50. D
51. B
52. B
53. D
54. D
55. D
56. C
57. C
58. A
59. D
60.E
61. E

Essay 1

   We live in a different time now. Our definition of leisure back then, and leisure now are quite different. Eliot's thinks her view of leisure is now gone in society. So let's look at her view of leisure, and how she states her views.

  Eliot's view of the word "leisure" is quite different to what we think of today. We think of it today as a weekend, or just free time after school to do certain activities like hanging out with friends, or whatever else we would do to spend our free time. But her definition of leisure is the old fashioned Sunday morning that mainly consists of the classic waking up, reading the newspaper, going to church, and then go on with normal chores of the day with their free time. So as shown, there has been quite a change in the word "leisure" since back in the day.

   To talk about old leisure, Eliot describes what old leisure was like, however, she describes it like a human being. Eliot calls old leisure "he", and describes him as "contemplative", "stout", and having a jolly conscience. She then went on to talk about what a daily routine would go like, and talk about the simple schedule. As mentioned before, the usual schedule included waking up, reading the newspaper, going to a church service, and go on with the rest of the day.

   So this is George Eliot's definition of  "Old Leisure". Just like mentioned, and having the thought probably coming to mind, our definition and the old definition of leisure are very different. It is also agreeable that old leisure is gone, and that we have our new definition of leisure that we have and enjoy to ourselves now.

Essay 2

   Out of a all the works listed, one that is a good example of change in traditions would have to be The Grapes Of Wrath, due to it's story line of a family having to frequently moving for work, and having to deal with new people. So here are some examples from the story that show how the book has changes in tradition and social attitudes.

  First, we look at how the story shows changes in tradition. In the story, the Joad family have to move off and go work in fields in order to obtain money. This was a complete change for the Joad family, and was something that they've never done before. They weren't used to or experienced in working in fields, or having to frequently move across the country. The whole story easily depicts having to blend in with the new life of working and moving frequently.

   Not only does the story show changes in tradition, but it also shows changes of social attitude. This is shown along with the changes of tradition, and the family frequently moving. In the story,when the Joad family have to move to a new location for work, this also means having to blend in with a new society, and new people. The Joad family have to adjust with new co-workers often due to the frequent moving. They frequently have to blend in with each new location that they move to, which is shown as a challenge.

   So those are two examples of how The Grapes Of Wrath shows social attitude changes, and changes of tradition. The two are shown by the family's frequent job moving, and growing into new locations all the time. The book is a good example of such theme.

 

Montaigne Essay

    After reading David Foster Wallace's quote, I would have to say that the writing of Michel De Montaigne contradicts what Foster says in his quote. Montaigne's writing is about a full on opposite on Wallace saying "...words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it...". But here are some explanations and examples on why this is.

   One way that Montaigne's writing contradicts Wallace's quote is that Montaigne's essays tend to be quite extensive. Now, we could just end it there and say that it contradicts Wallace's quote because he has long essays, but there is more to it that makes his essays long. First off, Montaigne makes many references to quotes of ancient Greeks to former kings in Europe to help support a point or an argument. When he makes a reference any of these people, he goes the distance of quoting them, and naming source, almost like a works cited page on an essay, but in this case, it's actually in the essay or paragraph.

  To answer the next question of his style providing a window to his thinking, it's the quotes and references from either ancient Greeks, or others that help show his thoughts and perspectives. Montaigne's usage of them show where he's get's his thoughts and opinions from, which will help try and get his readers a better understanding of his perspective. 

   Now comparing Montaigne's writing to Austen, one thing that both authors have in common are both their usage and references to other people, or other literature in their writing. In Pride And Prejudice, Austen makes a few allusions and references to other works of literature in the story itself. Austen makes allusions from a few old English books.

  So this sums Montaigne and his relation to Austen's writing, and Wallace's quote. Both authors using either quotes, references, and allusions throughout their writings, and both contradicting Wallace's quote saying how words barely sketch the outline of  anything at any given instant.

Poetry #1

1. The commercial uses the poem "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski.

2. The irony of using the poem for a commercial is the fact that the poem has a "choose the way you live your life, and do whatever you want to do" message, while Levi's is trying to sell you their product.

3. It reflects greatly on Bukowski's reputation. The positive message in the poem made him more of a praised author.

4. For research on question #1, I read the article on how the Levi's advertisement was banned in the UK because of the riot police scene. The article stated that Bukowski's poem was used.
For #3, I had to do some research on Bukowski, and read reviews on his writing, which showed that he was a praised author.

Big Question

They say that music can affect one's personality and the way they view the world. My question is, how? I feel like the music I listen to has no real affect on me, so does it on others?

ESSAY #1

The Posionwood Bible is a good example of Edward Said's quote of experiencing exile and how it is terrible, yet an enriching experience, because the Price family had to experience such exile when moving from their home to Africa. So here are examples of how the Price family had that relates to the quote, with one example showing the view of "enriching", and the other being "terrible"

First, daughter of Nathan, Rachel was one daughter that at first was not to happy of the move to The Congo in Africa, and also has no faith in her father's purpose of moving there, as the same with a few of the other Price daughters. She begins to start disliking the move even more after her father fails at supporting the family, trying to spread his word of Christianity, and the death of her sister, Ruth May, from being but by a poisonous snake. However, after her sisters and her mother leave Kilanga, she is flown into Johannesburg and later marries three men, the last one leaving her a hotel in the French Congo. So while she might have disliked the move, in the end, she continues with a good life, which probably wouldn't have happened if the move to Africa didn't happen. The same with her other sisters, all having better lives.

However, there is one character that experiences the opposite, of what was thought to be an enriching experience, which was the father, Nathan Price. In the story, he thought that the move to The Congo, Africa to spread the word of Christianity would be a good idea. He looks at it brightly, and thinks it will be successful, but ends up failing with events happening like the failure to grow food, and failure to baptize villagers of Kilanga. Then after the death of his daughter, Ruth May, his family leaves him and move to various locations. So unlike his daughters, Nathan did not have a good experience going through exile with the move to Africa.

So these are two examples of exile in The Poisonwood Bible that relate to Said's quote about exile and it being a terrible and enriching experience with Rachel's experience being happy in the end, and Nathan's good idea becoming a bad idea, which helps prove Said's point about exile.