Faux pas

Sorry everyone, I have yet to get the audiobook for Great Gatsby so my first breakdown of a book this summer will be conducted on Picture of Dorian Gray. This audiobook was short and since I listen to audiobooks when I go running, I was able to finish this book in two runs :) I don't listen to audiobooks when I'm sitting down or laying down and relaxing because I will end up falling asleep :/ Anyways back to the book....
Dorian Gray is an interesting character in that he wished to stay young while a portrait of him aged and this wish came true. Dorian Gray is a handsome young man, of twenty years old, so his friend, Basil, painted a still of him. I took a year of art and I know that for any painting or drawing, or any piece of art to be done, it takes time. Drawing Dorian Gray's painting took hours of Basil staring at him and transferring his image to a piece of canvas. In this process, Basil felt like he had placed a piece of himself in the painting, in a sense, brought the painting to life with his energy.

He loved an actress, Sibyl, who portrayed Juliet in a Romeo and Juliet play. She was wonderful but when Dorian's friends came to see the performance, it was a horrible rendering of Juliet's character. Dorian was angry and confronted her. Her excuse was that she is in love with Dorian and therefore could not pretend to be someone else falling for Romeo. Saying he overreacted is an understatement. He yelled and basically said he never wanted to see her again. Later that night, Dorian found out that she had killed herself. He momentarily felt bad and then he saw his portrait. His portrait had changed somehow, it had become darker and uglier. Sullen Dorian worried that someone would see his portrait, so over the years, he stayed home in close proximity to the portrait. He didn't age a day while those around him, inclusive the portrait, aged. 

Rumors spread that Dorian was involved in many scandalous crimes but with no evidence to bring him in. 

Basil visited him one day, and inquired about the portrait he had drawn. Dorian was disingenuous about the location. Basil asked many questions, so many that Dorian got anxious and worried so he stabbed his friend multiple times in the neck. According to CSI, it takes about fifty chops with an axe to fully chop someone's head off. Imagine what fury or fear was running through Dorian's head that he had the energy to chop his friend's head off with a mere kitchen knife. 

Dorian stuffed his friend's dead corpse into the closet with his portrait and he managed to see that the portrait had contorted yet again. This times, there was a red stain over his hand, a symbol that the painting adjusted so that portrait portrayed Dorian as a killer with an evil aura. Years passed and Dorian just felt sick with himself and especially the painting. He grabbed a knife, and went up to stab the painting. There was a shriek and when the servants went up to check on him, there was an old and ugly man lying on the floor with a knife in his chest, wearing Dorian Gray's jewelry and clothing. Next to his dead body was the portrait of the young Dorian Gray at his prime. 

A few morals of this story. 1) Careful what you wish for. The painting aged while DOrian didn't but it also aged in the way that depicted all his imperfections and wrongdoings. 2) Vanity will be your undoing. Having a narcissistic personality is not an attractive quality and that is why many people stayed away from Dorian. He was an a$$, plain and simple. 3) Fall in love for the right reasons, not just beauty.  Sibyl fell in love with Dorian but Dorian fell for her because of her beauty and most importantly because of her skills. When those skills disappeared, his affection and interest in her evaporated as well. She ended up killing herself because this arrangement wasn't a good one. 

To quote a bright and talented teacher, Mr. Paul Anderson, "I hope that was helpful!"

New blog design

Studies show the color blue relaxes hormones in the brain, therefore allowing us to concentrate better and absorb information readily. That's why I chose a blue background and I love mother nature so this picture was a good choice.
I also changed the blog music. The first song is "Pop Art Blue" by Zero 7. The second song is "Sail" by AWOLNATION. The third song is "Passive" by A Perfect Circle.

The future of this blog

Well, the future of this blog does not look grim. Actually, I plan to post something every so often. Because of all the deadlines and tests that made my senior year grueling, I didn't have that much time to reach books for pleasure, as in outside reading. That's what I plan to do this summer. I want to keep my brain active this summer so reading is definitely big in my schedule. I won't be doing literature analysis in the summer but I will be doing summaries/viewpoints of the books I read. First on my schedule is The Great Gatsby. Although this is a literary book its also a book I enjoyed last year in Nylander's class and since the movie recently came out, I want to read it so as to compare it to the movie. Adios and await the analysis.

Three best posts this semester

http://fruizrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2013/02/brave-new-world.html
http://fruizrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-am-here.html
http://fruizrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2013/04/reflection-on-act-1-scene-5-7.html

A little Funny to Keep You Sunny

May 3 essay

April 29 essay

May 1 essay

Poetry Essay prompt #2

I didn't want to complicate my life very much so I used one of the first prompts...

Poem reminded me of Wuthering heights. The speaker laments the death of a loved one as he stands over her grave whispering "I love you"

1970 Poem: “Elegy for Jane” (Theodore Roethke)

Prompt: Write an essay in which you describe the speaker's attitude toward his former student, Jane.

Elegy for Jane
(My student, thrown by a horse)

I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils;
And her quick look, a sidelong pickerel smile;
And how, once startled into talk, the light syllables leaped for her,
And she balanced in the delight of her thought,
A wren, happy, tail into the wind,
Her song trembling the twigs and small branches.
The shade sang with her;
The leaves, their whispers turned to kissing,
And the mould sang in the bleached valleys under the rose.
Oh, when she was sad, she cast herself down into such a pure depth,
Even a father could not find her:
Scraping her cheek against straw,
Stirring the clearest water.
My sparrow, you are not here,
Waiting like a fern, making a spiney shadow.
The sides of wet stones cannot console me,
Nor the moss, wound with the last light.
If only I could nudge you from this sleep,
My maimed darling, my skittery pigeon.
Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love:
I, with no rights in this matter,
Neither father nor lover.

Pre-write

Devices: anaphora (of "and"), repetition of "my", and tone of melancholy

Essay Response:
      To work so closely with someone, one can't help but develop a bond that transcends the boundary between teacher and loved one. In Theodore Roethke's "Elegy to Jane" depicts a speaker who laments the death of a student and the tone indicates that her absence has caused him great grief. With the repetition of "my", the speaker conveys that that he deeply cares about her. Finally, anaphora is used in the first stanza to indicate a list of her characteristics as he personifies branches and objects and compares them to her natural beauty.
      The tone can be seen throughout the poem as the speaker conveys melancholy as he laments her absence. He wishes deeply to bring her back, to see her one last time and feel her presence but he can't and she can't hear as he talks over her grave. He laments not being able to tell her his feelings. He misses her and this elegy is meant to convey his feelings of sorrow.
      The repetition of "my" shows the audience that the speaker cares deeply about Jane. This can be seen with the phrase "my love" that he wishes to tell her but he wasn't her lover or her father, but I'm sure he was a bit of both as a teacher figure in her life. "My" is also a form of ownership as he clings to her in a possessive manner and clings to her memory.
      Finally, the speaker uses anaphora of "and" to describe her characteristics and compare them to nature. The speaker gives describes her beauty in detail as he is in awe of her. He uses personification of things in nature, such as branches, to juxtaposition her natural beauty with nature. This conveys that Jane's beauty is as natural and graceful and nature yet still in a different category entirely. He finds her to be his world, her beauty engulfed his spirit beguiled.
       Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Roethke found Jane to be more than just beautiful. Her death was unexpected  he never got the chance to tell her his feelings. Because of that, this poem is filled with lament and the tone is gloomy and filled with melancholy as he mourns her unexpected passing. Her beauty beguiled him and this can be seen with the use of personification and anaphora. The repetition of my conveys his possessive and yet sincere feelings for her. 


.  

POETRY ESSAY PROMPT #1

Prompt: The following two poems are about Helen of Troy. Renowned in the ancient world for her beauty, Helen was the wife of Menelaus, a Greek King. She was carried off to Troy by the Trojan prince Paris, and her abduction was the immediate cause of the Trojan War. Read the two poems carefully. Considering such elements as speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone, write a well-organized essay in which you contrast the speakers’ views of Helen.

A more H.D.-like Helen (portrayed by Sienna Guillroy)

A more Poe-like Helen (portrayed by Diane Kruger)

Helen

BY H. D.

All Greece hates   

the still eyes in the white face,   

the lustre as of olives   

where she stands,   

and the white hands.   

All Greece reviles   

the wan face when she smiles,   

hating it deeper still   

when it grows wan and white,   

remembering past enchantments   

and past ills.   

Greece sees unmoved,   

God’s daughter, born of love,   

the beauty of cool feet   

and slenderest knees,   

could love indeed the maid,   

only if she were laid,   

white ash amid funereal cypresses.

To Helen

By Edgar Allan Poe

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand,
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land! 

Prewrite:
Poe devices: simile, alliteration, imagery, ab ab poem meter
H.D. devices: aa bb meter, simile, imagery, anaphora

Essay Response 1
       Although H.D. and Edgar Allan Poe each wrote a poem with the same name of "Helen," their views couldn't be more divergent. Poe conveys Helen's beauty and delicacy through the use of alliteration and imagery. H.D. conveys the opposite view and downsizes Helen's beauty with the use of simile and imagery. The commonality between these two authors is that they use her beauty as a tool to persuade the readers to either revere her or abhor through the use of literary devices.
       With a tone of revere and imagery, Poe portrays Helen like a goddess. Poe uses the simile and alliteration to show compare Helen beauty's to the emotions of a log that is traveling back to its homeland to be reunited. With the use of ab ab meter, he conveys a tone of respect because he is awe-struck by her beauty and she is his definition of beauty.
       H.D. contrasts with a tone of abhorrence and imagery that paints the picture of a monster. H.D. uses paralellism in the first two stanzas and anaphora to convey his attitude toward Helen is that of hatred and bitterness towards her beauty. The image that H.D. paints the image of Helen being on a funeral cypres and insinuates that that will bring peace and happiness to Greece. 
       H.D. and Poe have different views about Helen's beauty but they are similar in that they use her beauty to convey their opinions. Poe uses alliteration and tone to convey her in a prestigious light. While H.D. uses tone, parallelism and imagery to convey Helen in a not very flattering light.

Groupthink...

We were supposed to meet on Thursday but due to circumstances I wasn't able to attend the session... If I had, I'm sure there would have been different interpretations of the various poems that we managed to assign to each other.

Gridlock

 So the first two I used TPCASTT and the poems were "Hope" by Emily Dickinson and "Life" by Charlotte Bronte.

In this poem, I analyzed the poem "Acceptance" by Langston Hughes.

Poem options to analyze

Alright I got the first two poems on my own and the last three from Sam Garrison.  These last three poems are going to be the ones we analyze as a group tomorrow. Hope      By Emily Dickinson Hope is the thing with feathers  That perches in the soul,  And sings the tune--without the words,  And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard;  And sore must be the storm  That could abash the little bird  That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chillest land,  And on the strangest sea;  Yet, never, in extremity,  It asked a crumb of me. Life By Charlotte Bronte LIFE, believe, is not a dream So dark as sages say; Oft a little morning rain Foretells a pleasant day. Sometimes there are clouds of gloom, But these are transient all; If the shower will make the roses bloom, O why lament its fall ? Rapidly, merrily, Life's sunny hours flit by, Gratefully, cheerily, Enjoy them as they fly ! What though Death at times steps in And calls our Best away ? What though sorrow seems to win, O'er hope, a heavy sway ? Yet hope again elastic springs, Unconquered, though she fell; Still buoyant are her golden wings, Still strong to bear us well. Manfully, fearlessly, The day of trial bear, For gloriously, victoriously, Can courage quell despair !  "Epitaph on Sir Isaac Newton" by Alexander Pope, "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope, and "Marriage A-La-Mode" by John Dryden.

SEVENTH READING

I don't think it really made a difference that I read it a seventh time. This poem from the Harlem Renaissance is fairly easy to understand. If anything, I laughed more and more because it's true that if one is stupid then it shouldn't really be surprising to expect stupid actions.

Acceptance

By Langston Hughes

God in His infinite wisdom
Did not make me very wise-
So when my actions are stupid
They hardly take God by surprise 

Langston Hughes

Third period presentations answers to questions...

Not finished, will update later tonight...
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The only link present to this presentation were the multiple choice questions so that is all I did for this group...
MC answers:
1) D
2) C
3) C
4) D
5) A
6) B


The Five People You Meet in Heaven
MC Answers

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

Crime and Punishment
Essay intro's and outlines

MC

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

Life of Pi
MC

1. 
   

Act V notes

Holy guacamoly! There are a lot of scenes in this act! okay....
Scene 1:
Lady Macbeth is sleeping walking. Her gentlewoman, which I think is like a maid that follows her, notices this weird phenomenon and calls a doctor. They witness Lady Macbeth sleeping walking and she talks about guilt and having blood on her hands that she can't remove. So subconsciously she does feel guilty of all that she has incited.

Act 4 Notes

Scene 1:
This scene brings back the witches. They show Macbeth some apparitions that give him advice. One apparitions warns him of Macduff. Another apparitions tells him to be brave and act without thought and remorse. Also,  no man will vanquish him that arises from a woman. The Macbeth asks if Banquo's sons will reign. His question is answered with the appearance of Banquo's ghost followed by more apparitions that look like kings. Clearly these kings are Banquo's legacy and they will reign for a long time.

Act 3 notes

Scene 1: Banquo just tells the king that he is going out for a ride. While he is alone he rejoices bc the prophecy is coming true and his sons will reign. Macbeth is sad that Banquo won't be present for the feast tonight. When he is alone, he laments the fact that his children won't reign, Banquo's children will. It is as if, he killed the king just to hand over the kingdom to Banquo's children.
Macbeth meets with 2 murderers, and this is their second meeting. Macbeth really wants Banquo and especially the son, dead.The murderers agree to kill him tonight.

ACT II notes

Scene 1
In this act basically houses a soliloquy of Macbeth. He speaks of a danger before him and  contemplates whether it is real, the situation is real, and can he really bring himself to finish the king.

Scene 2
Macbeth is panicking! He has done the deed and killed Duncan but he is nervous about the blood on his hands and properly disposing of the knife and his clothes stained with blood. Lady Macbeth is agitated that her husbands is panicking like a little girl.

Reflection on Act 1 Scene 5-7

Act 1, Scene 5:
We enter scene five with Lady Macbeth reading a letter from her husband. We have an indirect characterization of Macbeth from her. He is a coward who doesn't really like to get his hands dirty. We have a direct characterization of her. She is in a word, a bitch. She hates cowardly people, therefore there is a small part of her that hates her husband. The only reason she is with Macbeth is because she sees that he can get high politically and she wants to bath in that glory.

Shortly, a messenger announces the arrival of the king, Duncan.

Macbeth arrives and talks to his wife. She is pleased of course because he was names the Thane of Cawdor, which is next in the line to be king. But she is not happy enough. "O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!" With this line he says that she wants Macbeth to kill Duncan. He says we will talk later because Duncan is arriving. 

Scene 6:

Duncan arrives with Banquo. Lady Macbeth goes out and meets him. He compliments her and the home, he seems like an honest and kind man. 

Scene 7:

Duncan is in his chamber and the lovely couple discuss the matter of killing Duncan. Macbeth says "He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought

Golden opinions from all sorts of people..." What this means is, he just got a promotion and a bunch of people like me, why would I want to kill him tonight? But of course, Lady Macbeth is an itch and sh calls him a coward and questions his manhood. He starts folding in and says what if we fail? She says that we won't fail if we have courage and of course who would blame us nice folks, especially if we look devastated ("As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?")? He starts thinking about it but the audience can pretty much insinuate that she managed to convince him. 

Brave New World chapter 11-end

Chapter 11--
Bernard should be called b@stard for stabbing the director in the back. Because he did this and he was the guardian of a Savage (ohhhhh), people revered him. The talks of someone accidently giving him alcohol in his embryo development were silent. Bernard's job is to look out for the Savage and basically take notes on his thoughts as if he were an experiment.
Bernard brags to Helmholtz about the attention he is getting from being the guardian of the savage. He has gotten women whenever he has wanted to. Helmholtz does not share the enthusiasm that Bernard shares for this feat so Bernard decides to leave him.  

Brave New World-- Chapters 9 & 10

Chapter 9 begins with Lenina taking soma in order to wash away the "stress" of her day. She obviously is disgusted by all the people, their culture, and Linda. Her drugged up state allows Bernard to take a helicopter to Santa Fe' for a few hours in order to get the necessary papers to take John and Linda out of the reservation. Within minutes, he is able to call Mustafa Mond, who listens pensively and allows the proper papers to be sent.
Meanwhile, John visits Bernard's hut and is frightened because the doors and locked and fears they have left. He looks through the window and relaxes once he sees Lenina's suitcase is still there. Like the little kid he is, he breaks the window and goes in. He opens the suitcase and looks through her stuff, smells he perfume like a PERV! He hears and noise and realizes Lenina is fast asleep in the other room. He hastily leaves when he hears the arrival of Bernard in the helicopter.

Chapter 10- Bernard strolls back into the factory because the Director has asked to see him. He publicly denounces Bernard for being a disgrace to Alphas and says he is going to move Bernard to Alaska where he can't bother anyone with his disgrace. The Director asks if Bernard has anything to say for himself. Bernard says yes and brings in Linda.
She yells and for the director calling him "Tomakin!!" Everyone in the room is agasped by the mere sight of the woman. She then yells for John, proclaiming that he is the father of John. The director turns pale!! Dun dun dunnnnnnnn. Someone is in trouble and it's no longer Bernard.

MARCH LIT ANALYSIS

I haven't chosen a novel yet.... Will update this post when I have

Brave New World Chapter 8

This chapter primarily deals with John. Bernard is asking him to recall his youngest memories.

• He would find his mom sleeping with other men.
• women would attack her because she was sleeping with their men
• she didn't understand and would cry because she was used to getting whomever she wanted when she wanted
• everyone would ridicule John and Linda at celebrations or just in general
• Linda tries to teach John to read but he has many questions, like any child would
• He questions the other place, doesn't quite understand it yet. 

Bernard asks John to come back with him but he agrees only if Linda could come to.
Bernard agrees because he wants to use Linda and John like leverage against the director.
Bernard does not want to get sent away so he is formulating some sort of plan to use them.



132-words able to elaborate feelings of John.

We are in a Brave New World? Through Huxley's view

1) "religion drives us toward communism"-- in a way this is both true and false. Many people in this day and age, especially youth,  have become less diligent about attending mass. Individuals have become less singular on who they vote for. Individuals no longer vote all democratic or all republican because they can vote for a democratic president while also voting for a republican senator. I think people are just being more liberal in a sense that they are no longer confined to just a singular option. The people want equality because that is the foundation of our government and how everyone should treat each other. So I think communism is meant more as social equality than economic equality.
2) "advances in technology require more regulations" -- Also  Huxley insinuates that with each leap and bound through technological frontiers means people will buy product without even knowing how to use it or what the purpose is. For instance,  iPods are relatively everyhwere but there are certain gadgets that the Ipod has the people don't know how to use. With new technology comes more responsiblity but people aren't really being responsible. If anything, technology has made it relatively easy for people to do illegal things, such as downloading music or hacking account and taking money. Yes, there should be more regulations but there aren't many so chaos will continue to ensue.
3) Birth-control- This is definitely something that has risen in the past few decades. Over population means productivity slows down because there are too many and too few jobs. People in BNW sleep around, a lot, so they must have contraceptives because a natural birth is seen in our world as a birth out of wedlock or even worse than that depending on the culture.

Brave New World - chapters 4-7

What a new world this is. In chapter 4-7, the readers are given both direct and indirect characterizations of Bernard. Bernard is definitely the odd man out. Him and Helmholtz are both oddities because they question the reality they live in. Bernard is an outlier because he feels different from other alphas, especially since he is shorter than the other alphas and is uncomfortable talking about relationships in public. In chapter six, he discusses his feelings about polygamy to Lenina. Basically he says that people that imply act on emotion right away are like children because they don't wait. He doesn't like golf, he doesn't like sleeping around, and he doesn't like soma.
Bernard gets along with Helmholtz because he too is an oddity. He is abnormally bigger and broader shoulders than the other alphas. He has slept with many women but in a way, all this sleeping around has desensitized him and he no longer cares about sex. Both men find comfort with each other because they like to talk about their feelings of uneasiness about the society they live in. They can talk to each other because they have essentially the same questions, and other people who were to listen would think they are mad men.

Lenina has a mini "crush" on Bernard. She finds Bernard to be an oddity but she still agrees to go with him to the New Mexico reservation instead of a vacation with Benito Hoover. Bernard and Lenina arrive at the reservation in chapter 7. Both hang out and eventually Lenina convinces Bernard to compromise himself and drink 4 soma and they go home and "undress." The next day, Lenina does not like the reservation at all. She doesn't like the dirt or the savages' appearance. Their tour guide leads them to where the villagers are at. The villagers are in a circle and they are chanting. A boy rises and walks. A man with a coyote mask sneaks up and whips him and whips him and whips (7x's). Apparently the whipping is to draw blood to offer to snakes and to gods. This is when we meet John.
John talks in broken English and says he would have volunteered to take the whipping but the villagers didn't let him. Now who would volunteer to purposely get a whipping? Someone who has something to prove so he must also be an outside in his own way. He tells Lenina and Bernard his story. His mother is Linda, a Beta, who was here a long time ago with her boyfriend and she wondered off and fell and hit her head. Her boyfriend left and she was left in the reservation. Her contraceptive must have worn off because she was left in the reservation pregnant. Linda is happy to see Lenina because she feels the need to talk to another person, "of her own kind."  That about ends the chapter.

Gattaca, a similar entity to Brave New World‏

Initially when I started reading Brave New World, I noticed similarities between this story and the movie Gattaca. Both have employed social status based simply on the genetics of a human being. This has become the new norm of discrimination and the new caste system. This video sums up Gattaca's form of caste system. In a way, Gattaca is the stepping stone that leads to Brave New World.  

BRAVE NEW WORLD (II & III)

And the madness that is this dystopian world continues....

"They'll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an 'instinc- tive' hatred of books and flowers. Reflexes unalterably conditioned. They'll be safe from books and botany all their lives." The Director turned to his nurses. "Take them away again."--- I get a little bit of a Fahrenheit 451 vibe by this quote. Books do cause you to think and someday someone will read something they are not supposed to and revolt. 

Hypnopedia, was first used officially in A.F. 214. Why not before? Hypnopedia is teaching something through sleep.

Example of hypnopedia--"Alpha children wear grey They work much harder than we do, be- cause they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfuly glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta chil- dren. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able ..."

"The greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time.".... is hypnopedia, according to Henry Frost.

Chapter 3:
Introduces the scene with kids frolicking in a meadow- laughing in perfect harmony. If the story continues with the same psychotic sadistic ambience, the kids will soon be contorting in pain because some lesson is being taught to them. A lesson is being taught that emphasizes captivity and enclosure as the new norm.
-". imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It's madness"

"In a little grassy bay between tall clumps of Mediterranean heather, two children, a little boy of about seven and a little girl who might have been a year older, were playing, very gravely and with all the fo- cussed attention of scientists intent on a labour of discovery, a rudi- mentary sexual game." --- yup should have known there was something more to this frolicking in the meadow than meets the eye. Each game is cold and calculating meant to educate and any games that do no attain a certain leveling of learning are forbidden. The factory is trying to follow the paradigm of the model-t contraption in which everything is made and done with a purpose and multiplied with interchangeable parts. No room is left for error and if such an anomaly were to occur, it would quickly be reprimanded.

- Mustapha Mond is introduced as a great man and all should be honored to have the opportunity for him to speak to the students.
- narrator refers to Mond the the director of the factory as horses "from the horses mouth"--- what could that imply?

- "everyone belongs to everyone else". Hence promiscuity and polygamy are encouraged. Monogamy is seen as horrible and  unstable.

-"sixty-two thousand four hundred religions make one truth." Bernard said bc he is a specialist.
-maddening world to live in. Hey balsam monogamy in Christianity. Sure that might have been where it originated but even atheists are monogamists. Don't blame the religion for how people live, blame the people themselves for their life choices and their interpretations of their sect books.

- I like how the chapter has simultaneous conversations. You have the loud speaker on and ford talking. You have Lenina talking to her friend about Bernard, an alpha, and you also had Bernard ranting about how this society is wrong. 
-"The Nine Years' War began in A.F. 141."

I AM HERE

Please explain your progress in this course during the first grading period.  Have you made progress toward your SMART goal?  Have you begun thinking/working on your senior project, big question, collaborative working group, or other endeavor/venture that shows how you're putting this course to work for you?  Document and explain your performance.

--I take advance placement classes because I have the ubiquitous optimism every student and parent has, that education will equip me for a brighter future. But there is also that small fear that maybe I'm not doing enough.  I have so much on my plate-filling out scholarships, meeting deadlines- that I'm stretched out thin, floating above the surface trying to breathe as much air as I can.  Yeah I've made progress towards my goals, and completed as many of them as I could. I've made so many lists on notepads and paper with things to do, just so much to do, always. Whenever you feel like a list is done, another seems to crop back up. I don't like deadlines but as I said in an earlier post, "deadlines give me structure, and I like structure." I really wish we did have deadlines for projects because that would really push me to complete them.

FIRST QUARTER REVIEW

a) Evaluate your performance so far this semester by explaining how you've done on required assignments and how you have moved forward on your Sr. Project/BQ/CWG; 
--Hmm, I think I've done pretty good in this semester. At the end of January, there was a week where I found it so difficult to get myself to do my hw. I would literally start at 7 or 8pm and it was such a chore to get out a pen or pencil. Thank goodness it was only a week and I managed to slap myself back into shape. No more dilidadalinging because there is free money out there and I need to find it (treasurer hunt!!). I have a portfolio filled with scholarships I'm going to get a crackalacking on. I'm glad its an early out so I can work on busting out some essays.
--Anyways, senior project talks have been good. My group (Ming, Matt, Val., Isaih, Dulce, Sam and I) has set up a good foundation/outline in which to move forward from. Looking forward to bringing out project to completion.

WRITINGAS5PECTATORSPORT

Some people that I have checked their blogs, have notified me that they are having technical difficulties uploading images and videos of being spinx! So I'll return to this post later once they have filtered out all the bugs.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Chapter 1 overview....

• A. F. 632----current year
• Bokanovsky's Process----some kind of sterilizing technique----"One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress."
• "Ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines!"---the future of science.... no originality or imaginative running free....just order like a dictatorship...
• Planetary motto-"Community, Identity, Stability."
• Bokanovsky's Process limits- "Ninety-six seemed to be the limit; seventy-two a good average."
• Mr. Foster-scientist at the factory. He is ecstatic to beat gamete producing ovary records.
• "Made them taste the rich blood surrogate on which it fed."----Disturbing....
• '"We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future…" He was going to say "future World controllers," but correcting himself, said "future Directors of Hatcheries," instead.'-----Again like a dictatorship because class rank already established from birth based on genes. This slighty reminds me of Gattaca.
• "The surrogate goes round slower; therefore passes through the lung at longer intervals; therefore gives the embryo less oxygen. Nothing like oxygen-shortage for keeping an embryo below par."---Again, this is the factories way of ensuring there are certain humans with defects. Decrease oxygen will lead to mental and physical defects which will be evident later in life. This is a way of ensuring some humans will be better than others.

My personal analysis:

Kind of sickening of this world, has pioneered in science at molecular levels that are amazing and incalculable, but these scientists have chosen to play god. They design who gets to have better qualities than others and who gets to be elite. Obviously, I disagree with these methods but in this world, scientists have decided what is the norm, and the norm is a sort of dictatorship. Very good introductory chapter because it explains the views of many people and the people of that time have grown to the idea that influencing genes and deciding who becomes elite is perfectly normal. My nerdy side of me loves the idea of this sort of dystopian way of living and involves molecular biology so looking forward to the rest of the novel.

Spectator writing/ spinx

Dulce, Ming, and I essayed bombed Matt. The first picture is the essay prompt and the following pictures are his essay. Later on I will post links to the videos that were taken.

These pictures are my essay. Matt essay bombed Isiah, Ming, and I today. 

Terms 101-the rest

Pun:  play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications.

Purpose: the intended result wished by an author.

Realism:  writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightfoward manner to reflect life as it actually is.

Guestimation Rankings (BOB 1)

I say "guestimation rankings" because I think everyone in the class does a good job. I don't get to see every single blog but most of them I do and I like how everyone has a different style. I ranked everyone based on how often I go on their sites and how intriguing I find their blogs.

• Ming Chen: 
• Josh Ng: 
• Matthew Patel
• Justin Thompson: 
• Samantha Garrison: 
• Valerie Gonzalez: 
• Felicitas Ruiz: 
• Dulce Vargas: 
• Erika Snell: 
• Tanner Tuttle: 
• Isiah Mabansag: 
• Conor McNamara: 
• Megan Hardisty: 
• Sebastian Guillen: 
• Ashley Wilburn:  
• Chanel Yamaguchi:
• Abby Kuhlman: 
• Alex Lane: 
• Karianne LaPlante: 
• Colleen Livingstone: 
• Travis Knight: 
• Danielle Galindo: 
• Kristofer Green: 
• Alicia Hernandez: 
• Reed Conforti:
• Cassidy Ashlock:
• Brittany Cunningham: 
• Haleigh Jones:
• Ryunhee Kim: 
• Carly Koertge: 
• Lacey Mougeotte: 
• Bailey Nelson:
• Nathan Oh:   
• Conner Patzman:
• Troy Prober: 
• Brady Redman: 
• Jason Reinwald: 
• Devon Tomooka: