Book post #3

In today’s discussion one of the main things we talked about was the growth of Christopher.  How he was able to go from a confused child who was scared to do almost anything new, to a mature young man who was able to go all the way to London by himself.  In the beginning of the book, Christopher was not able to process any emotion, he couldn’t tell when he was happy or sad, and when he tried to tell what other people felt, he would get frustrated and scream or groan.  At the very end of the book, we get a sure sign that his condition will get better when he is able to process the feeling of joy that came from passing his math exam and tell readers exactly how he felt.  I wish my group had a little more time to go over more though.  I don’t believe we covered other Characters in the story as much as we could.  I think his mom had also grown a lot since she left, and I think his dad had worsened after Christopher left.  Also I wished we spent more time discussing his social problems.  It seemed that whenever he tried to communicate with strangers they would get mad at him.  I am still curious about if people are aware of his disorder, they might have thought Christopher was a bad kid who was being smart with them.  From what I can tell from reading the dialogue Christopher responded to people just like a bad kid would.  I think we can get a lot out of this book.  I have changed my mind about people with disabilities like autism.  I used to not be able to see how they could think, it seemed impossible t tell what was going through their heads, but now I see why.  Their minds are simply not able to process emotion, but the effects of this go way beyond not being able to tell if someone is happy or sad.  They can’t interact with others properly, they cannot think about certain things, and they do not have the same feelings as you and me.  The reason that someone like Christopher seems so weird to us is that we seem even weirder to him.

Oakland response

Here’s a response to Jesse’s response to my earlier post on Oakland

“Well I saw on the news a while ago that a lady that was in Mont Claire or some other really nice part of Oakland left her 6 year old daughter take care of 2 or 3 of her baby siblings for an entire day. The lady came back the next day and the police came and arrested her (I don't know how they found out). That's just an example that some nice places turn out to get a bad reputation, so these peaceful places and Alameda will probably get that. The shooting in Alameda 3 years ago is another example. A little girl got shot by some kids at a park in Alameda, so that's another sign. I heard that all of Oakland used to be a nice place, but it just slowly turned into a bad place. I predict that Alameda and the rest of Oakland will share the same fate. It's only a matter of time.”

I think that this post makes since, but I do not agree with what he is saying about places not being what they seem and Alameda soon turning out like Oakland.  Jesse said that Oakland started out nice and then turned bad, and that Alameda will do the same.  I did some reading on Wikipedea, and I do not believe that this is the case.  Here is what happened that turned Oakland into a dangerous place:

During World war two there was high demand for war supplies.  As a result manufacturing jobs quickly appeared all around the country.  One place where manufacturing became very successful was Oakland California. 

At the same time this was happening, many African Americans in the south, in order to escape oppression, moved to these places that offered these factory jobs requiring little mental skill (Southern Africans were for the most part uneducated because of the poor quality of black schools).

These manufacturing jobs did not last long though.  After the war there was no need for excess supplies.  This caused the jobs to disappear along with the richer people of Oakland (mostly white).  This period of time where whites left the poorer cities was known nationally as the White Flight.

In the 70’s, just like the rest of the country, drugs became more common and accessible.  As a result of this, the crime rate increased dramatically, so much that it was double that of New York City.  Because there was a higher crime rate, whites did not return, and with the richer people gone, there was no one to employ the poor.

Property in Oakland was very low because of the bad conditions.  This made the city an excellent place for immigrants from Mexico (legal or illegal) to settle down in.  For the Mexicans, it was just as difficult, the increase in population did not improve things at all, it just increased the poverty.

On top of all of the social difficulties, the Earthquake and fire caused a huge economic loss for the city.  This is about where Oakland stands today; not enough jobs, drugs and crime everywhere, almost uncontrollable population, and low funds. 

This is why I don’t think it will happen to Alameda.  Alameda is a small suburban town, whose pulpous is not to employ, but to give people a place to live.   

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time response post # 2

            In our discussion, my group and I discussed Christopher’s social problems.  After reading the second third of “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time”, we got our first look on how Christopher interacts with people and solves problems in populated areas.  We see Christopher try to make it to the train station, but on the way must ask people how to get there.  Also we see the people who aren’t used to interacting with people like Christopher, and they display anger when talking with him.  In the Discussion, I asked if his parents made the right decision when his mom left him, my group mates told me that it was not right when at first his dad hid the letters, but after Christopher believed for a while that his mother was dead, it was the wrong for his dad to tell him she was alive.  I would have liked to spend more time on this, I want to hear what people’s opinions are on Christopher’s mother’s decision to leave, if it was right or not.  I believe that it was write because she was doing it for Christopher’s own good, not her own.  She was not a good parent for an autistic child, and was not offered any support from Christopher’s father.  I also would have wanted to talk more about how Christopher’s mind worked.  There was a great example of this when he showed us constellations, he said the stars aligned in a certain way and made a man, but he said that there were many other ways to connect the dots.  I believe that this is an example on how he sees faces.  They have certain characteristics, but he can’t connect the dots to see what they are thinking.  In this section of the book, he shows us an example of his photographic memory.  He goes into a room for a few seconds, and is able to draw a map of it much later.  Also he plays a game in his head involving moving several boxes around, he is able to create a very complex figure using memory of previous moves.  He doesn’t only remember what he sees, but also what he thinks.

Response to Oakland post

I am doing a response to Aleah’s post about Oakland.

She writes:

         “When I first read Luis's response post I thought Alex Noble had posted this, but in fact it was Alex Tang who lives in Oakland. What the hell Alex, are you stupid. If you didn't notice this Oakland is not as violent as people portray it to be.Honestly. I live in West Oakland where there are shootings every know and again, but I've been living there for five going on six years after moving from Berkeley and I've never been Shot at.”

I happen to live in Alameda, but I still can see the frustration that people who live in Oakland have.  Just because things happen, doesn’t mean that it will happen to you.  This is of course connecting to what she said about there being shootings on occasion, but her never actually being shot at.  No matter where you live people will assume things about you and your community based only on where you come from.  I admit that I do this sometimes. Sometimes seriously, and sometimes as a joke.  I am sure that people in Oakland have plenty of stereotypes about people living in Alameda.  The main problem with these stereotypes is that they make people scared on things they are not used to.  Living in Alameda, I might sometimes be scared to go to Oakland because I feel that something bad will happen.  But if people never go there, it will become isolated, not allowing conditions to get better, only continue to get worse within their community.  The majority of Oakland is safe; it just has a much higher crime rate then many other places.  What defines how dangerous a city is, is how it compares to other places.  If people from a perfect planet were to visit Alameda, they would view it as Dangerous because that is how it compares to where they come from.  Honestly the amount of people killed there is nothing compared to the total population.  Everyone I know from Oakland is turning out fine.  I know just as many people from Alameda that are struggling as people from Oakland.  This of course is just me and I know far more people from Alameda then Oakland, but the point is that crime is not limited to one place, it is just well known in one place.

Discussion post

During my disscussion on “the Curious incident of the dog in the night-time” my group and I disscussed the effect of Autism on Christopher’s life.  He doesn’t fit in with society because of the weird habits his disability causes him to have.  One very interesting part of the discussion was when the question that Christopher’s mother might still be alive.  If you think about it, it make since because Christopher was not allowed to see her in the hospital, and she was cremated, making it so there would b no actual opportunity to see a body.  In the discussion I brought up many examples of how his disease limits him, like how he can’t make friends easily, and also how people confuse him.  Some of the topics that we discussed that I would have liked to spend more time on was the fact that it might have been Christopher’s issues that destroyed his parents marriage, not simply his parents not getting along.  I also would have wanted to elaborate on how his mother possibly leaving instead of dieing might connect to the murder of Wellington.  Obviously someone was mad at her, but I doubt it was Mr. Shears because he had already done enough harm to Mrs. Shears, and wouldn’t want to hurt her any more, because obviously it was his fault for leaving Mrs. Shears for Christophers mother.  I would have also wanted to talk more about the way Christopher learns.  We only briefly discussed the fact that despite Christopher’s disability, he is still very intelligent.  I believe that the point of this book is to give readers an inside look of the life of an autistic person.  I love how in the book many habits are explained in a way that people with no problems can relate to them.  One thing that I still don’t under stand in the story is why he uses colors to determine if a day will god or not.  I believe if he wants to be more successful in life he should treat every day the same, making a day that might not have been great if he determined it by looking at cars, into a great day that he determins is a great day by giving it a chance.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time response post

In “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time”, Mark Haddon, the author shows us the struggles of an autistic person as they attempt to move through life with the rest of us.  Christopher, the protagonist of the novel faces many problems, all revolving around the fact that he doesn’t function mentally as others do.  This affects his social life, his academic life, and his family life.  One significant thing I noticed right away when I began reading this strange novel is the fact that whenever Christopher meets someone new, he puts extra emphasis into the description of people’s feet or shoes, and completely skips describing peoples faces.  This is because, as he states in the story, he doesn’t trust strangers.  He doesn’t trust them because they can lie, and the slight possibility that someone would lie to Christopher is too much for him to handle.  This is why he avoids people’s faces.  He can’t tell what people’s expressions are, so for example, if someone were being sarcastic, he wouldn’t be able to tell, he would think they are being serious and believe that they were lying.  People’s faces confuse Christopher even more then people are confused by Christopher.   Christopher was talking to Siobhan in the beginning of the story and she said that things that he did make people confused.  Christopher got mad because of this.  He was mad because he was just as confused as others and not even Siobhan seemed to realize this.  Something that I find very significant in this book is the intelligence of Christopher.  He doesn’t learn from finding simple facts and connecting them to find a completely new piece of information.  Because of this he has to learn everything from facts.  He is very good at science and math because both subjects are a large collection of facts, just like Christopher’s mind.  Christopher’s autism not only limits him when reading other people’s expressions, it also limits him on having emotions.  Christopher never seems to be able to express how he feels, and instead of expressing feelings in words, he screams or groans.  His own limit of emotion is so small, that he doesn’t even feel bad when he finds that his mom cheated on his dad with Mr. Shears.

Response post

I found this quote on Alex’s essay on The Kite Runner.

“Even Hassan`s play mate, Amir, doesn’t consider him a friend because the culture tells him that he isn't worth his time. I think this connects to American society, because African Americans were discriminated against for the same unreasonable reasons the Harzaras were: Just small differences in features. I think the author wanted to show that racism not only happens in America, it happens everywhere and sometimes it is even more brutal.”

I completely agree with what Alex is saying.  Racism is not simply limited to whites hating blacks, or well known hate groups like the KKK, it is very much more then that, and sometimes indirect forms of racism can harm someone even more then direct forms.  Assef is for sure a direct racist.  He openly says everything on his mind, especially his hatred of hazaras.  Although Assef constantly harms Hazaras, he never really hurt Hassan, of course he harmed him, but who really hurt Hassan, was Amir.  Amir is an indirect racist, he is the best friend that Hassan has, and because of this, he can hurt him the most.  If your enemy were to say he hated you, would you be hurt?  Probably not, because you share the same feelings, and don’t even want him to like you.   Best friend said that he hated you, then would you be hurt?  The answer would be of course, because you like them, and want their love.  I believe that what caused Hassan to finally move what I just explained.  Hassan knows that Assef is evil so he is not harmed by what he does.  After Assef does “it” to him he looses his best friend.  Although Hassan completely understands why Amir shuts him out of his life, he still can’t live with a friend that pretends to hate him.  It makes him feel unimportant and insignificant in Amir’s life.  Indirect racism is much more common then direct in America, and happens when someone stays away from someone because of their race, or denies someone a job because of subconscious stereotyping.

Kite Runner Response #3

            In the last section of The Kite Runner everything happens.  Amir meets Sohrab, he adopts Sohrab, and most importantly, Amir is able to let go of his very troubled childhood.  The first thing that he is able to use to get over his cowardly ness is payback.  This comes when Assef fights him and basically destroys Amir’s face.  After fighting Assef, Amir is also left with a scar going up his upper lip.  This symbolizes the pain and suffering of Hassan, and how now it is brought where it belongs, upon Amir.  Amir knows that he was always the weak one, and as a result of this feels that he should be in Hassan’s shoes taking everything Hassan was forced to go through. 

            In this last part of the story, we get our first real look at the Taliban.  They came with Afghans under the impression that they would rebuild the country to be a safer, better place.  This is not what happened at all.  The Taliban massacred Hazaras, and destroyed the lives of many innocent Afghan children like Sohrab.  All the things the Taliban did were justified by them by saying it was all done in the name of god.  This is simply how it is justified; they really did it because they were power hungry, psycho, pedophiles that simply wanted to see others suffer.  I said in another post that the reason people want to harm others is they think that the ones they harm are responsible for their suffering or their countries problems.  People choose to blame these things on others because they don’t wish for the fault to be theirs. This is why the Taliban came to power.  They were strong because they had the support of many people who didn’t want to accept a partial responsibility for the state of Afghanistan.

            On a different note, Amir is finally able to move on with his life in the end.  He does everything he needs to make up for his sins, even if he does these in a way that doesn’t necessarily make things better.  Because of a simple mistake Amir made, Sohrab almost killed himself.  In the end Amir saved Sohrab life, which in a way makes up for the mistake, but Sohrab is still scared with the horrors of an Afghan child, and unlike Amir, can’t be happy.

What is "Q"

Week two Kite Runner Post

            In the Second third of The Kite Runner, Amir and his father Baba move to America because the Russians invaded Afghanistan and it became to dangerous to live there.  In America Amir is able to adjust quickly and happily, while it kills Baba.  Baba has lived in Afghanistan his whole life, and has a deep connection with its people and culture not to mention the wealth he had there.  For Baba leaving Afghanistan is the worst thing that could possibly happen, he leaves behind almost everything he loves and must live a completely different lifestyle halfway around the world.  This is also what caused Baba to become more attached to Amir in America.  Amir was all Baba had.  In America Baba made an effort to go to the flea market because of all the memories it brought back to him, it was a place to meet with people who were facing the same problems that he was.  The reason that Baba loved Amir's decision to marry Suraya is that she came from a wealthy Afghan family.  The fact that she was from Afghanistan caused Baba to feel like Amir marrying her would cause them to be more connected to their roots in Afghanistan. What caused Baba to die was that he didn’t want to use American treatment to cure him, if he were in Afghanistan, then he would have gotten the treatment right away.

            Amir, unlike Baba adjusted to America quickly and happily.  Amir only had bad memories in Afghanistan.  It was part of his life that he wanted to end, and escaping in the American lifestyle was a perfect way to do this.  He went to college, married, and got a successful job as a writer, and took on the American way of life with ease.  The main difference between him and Baba is their connections with Afghanistan.  Amir’s was negative, but Baba’s was positive.  All Baba wanted was to go back to Afghanistan where he belonged, and all Amir wanted to do was get as far away as possible from his roots and the haunting memories they brought him.

Stuff

One day Timmy the turtle was swimming in the ocean when he was eaten by a shark.  The shark said "I am going to eat you", Timmy said "no, please don't".  After that the shark ate Timmy.  

Freddy the Frog was hopping by the pond and say a tiger drinking the pond water.  Freddy said "Don't drink the water, I go pee pee in there."  Then the tiger died.

Carl the cow was grazing in his field when he was taken into a building.  In the building a farmer killed him and turned him into a hamburger.  The hamburger was then eaten by Carl's parents who later died because Carl tasted so bad.

Peggy the Polar Bear was sleeping on a block of drifting ice.  The ice began to melt and Peggy fell into  the watter and drowned.  While she was drowning, she said "Oh no I'm drowning,"  Then she died and was eaten by wolves.

Emmanuel the elephant was walking through Africa when he got thirsty, then died of dehydration.  Later that evening Emmanuel was eaten by crocodiles.

Sam the squirrel met Christian the Chameleon one day.  They became friends right away, but their friendship came to an abrupt end when Sam strangled Cristian with Cristian's own tong.  Cristian said "Ow your strangling me,"  Sam said "I know."  Then Cristian died.

Kenny the Kangaroo was hoping through Australia when he tripped on a rock and broke his leg.  Not being able to move Kenny yelled "I'm injured help me, but please don't eat me!"  After he yelled this a bunch of spiders came and ate him.

Brady the Bird was flying through the sky and saw a plane coming at him.  He tried to change direction but he wasn't fast enough so he was sucked into the planes engine.  As he was going into the engine he said "o no I am going to die."  Then he died.

The End

Response to Jesse's Post

I am doing a response to Jesse’s post on Kite Runner.

In Jesse’s post, he explains that the reason Amir acted so negatively towards Hassan after he was raped was that Amir felt very bad for not doing anything while it was going on, and felt like he himself didn’t deserve Hassan.  This is shown in Jesse’s writing when he writes

            “Hassan had always stuck up for Amir and helped him whenever he needed it most, and during             Hassan's greatest moment of need, Amir ran and pretended that he never saw what happened.             Even when Amir saves him from any more harm from Assef, he still is haunted by his decision to             run instead of trying to protect Hassan. He knows that he could never do anything to be able to             forgive himself for what he did, even if Hassen did.”

Although this is a very well evidenced explanation, I have a different opinion on the tension between the two ex friends.  The reason Amir didn’t interact with Hassan after he was raped was that he was Jealous of Hassan.  Throughout the whole story Baba makes an effort to make sure that whenever he and Amir can have a moment alone Hassan is there or has been invited.  This leads Amir to believe that Baba loves the child of their servant as much, or possibly even more then his own child.  Also when Amir and Hassan were approached by Assef on the hill, Hassan had the courage to stand up to Assef and cause him to stop bullying Amir.  Amirs lack of this kind of courage is shown when he witnesses Hassan getting raped.  Although no one knows that Amir is watching the brutal act, he still chooses not to get help because he is a coward.    After, that is when Amir can’t talk to Hassan because he is angry at him for being stronger.  This situation gets even worse when Hassan is able to heal from the incident even faster then Amir.  They were no longer able to be friends because they were simply different.  They had different personalities, different strengths, different weaknesses, and very importantly, different religions.

Kite Runner

After reading the first third of kite runner, I now have an idea of what the story is about.  Khaled Hosseini wrote the story to give readers an idea of peoples view on equality.  Equality is a huge part of novel as it is a huge part of the world.  There are three different charactors in The Kite Runner that dispkay different views on it.  Baba believes that no matter who you are or where you come from you are the same as everyone else.  Amir believes that you can associate with or be friends with anyone, but how people view you is more important than the special bonds you form with others.  Finally Assef, the evil child who worships Hitler has an oppinion that all of humanity must be divided into groups that reflect your personal beliefs and race.

            Baba lived a very similar life to Amir, in the fact that both of them had a friendship with someone who society doesn’t accept.  The only differencem is that Baba didn’t see what the world thought of his friendship and Amir did.  Baba didn’t have any reason to think that his friendship was wrong so he kept the belef that everyone can get along and is equal throught his whole life.  Amir on the other hand was judged by his peers on his bond with Hassan.  Because of this he only played with Hassan when he was by himself, and evenlooked down on him on certain occasions.  Amir’s self conciouness was the thing that ended up ruining his friendship with Hassan.

            Assef is the complete opposite of Baba.  He hates thoughs who are different from him.  This is reflected by his praise of the Adolf Hitler.  Assef tries whenever possible to put others down.  Assef can be compared to Hitler, exept on a much smaller scale.  They both blame all the problems on others.  For example Assef blames the problems in Afganistan on Hazaras, especially Hassan.  Hitler responds to this by murdering six million Jews.  While 

Reflective Essay

            Looking back at my blog posts over the past quarter, I see several patterns in my writing.  First of all I have some posts that are very well written, but at the same time there are some that are clearly not my best work, along with this there are posts that are very long, but also thoughts that are short.  I noticed that for many of the well-written ones, I had an emotional connection to the topic, and because of that the post turned out very well.  Many of the not so good posts appeared as if they were slapped together at the last second with little to no thought.  This is probably because they were.  In my writing, it seems that in some of my blog posts, I randomly came up with a topic from what ever was on my mind at the time, and in others I write about something that I can connect or relate to.  It seems clear that writing about things that I can connect to helps me to produce much better writing then simply writing about the first thing that comes to my head.

            One of my bad posts is the one I titled “Keeping Up”.  In this I go over where I wanted to be with my education, and also where I was at the time.  Honestly, this is a very boring topic that no one wants to hear about.  I chose this topic because at the time I happened to be thinking about my grade and decided to write the thoughts I had about it down.  The major problem I had with this is that I only had “a few” thoughts on this.  This limited my writing, once I ran out of ideas it just kind of ended.  I also didn’t have much of an emotional connection to the topic.  Talking about my grade doesn’t require me to care about my grade.  Even though I did care about my grade, it doesn’t mean it has to show when I write about it.  If I got anything out of looking back at that piece it is that I don’t always know everything I need to know about a topic before I start writing about it.

            Even though there are a few assignments that I didn’t do very well on, there are still others that turned out near perfect.  One of these is my response to a picture we were shown in class of a girl reading a letter.  I titled this assignment “Girl Reading a Letter”.  I believe the reason I didn’t do so well on this is that it was fun to write it.  It was fun because we could be creative and funny in the story that we create.  This in a sense of an emotional connection because you care about what you are writing about.  Unlike “Keeping Up” this didn’t end abruptly, it kept going until I reached a point where I felt it was a good place to stop.  I could have even kept on writing and turned the short story in to a full-length book.  I of course didn’t do this because I didn’t have enough time, and of course the proper writing skills, but the main point is that the reason I was able to write the story so well was that I actually had fun writing it. 

              I believe that what controls the quality of my writing is my relationship to the subject.  This is why writing about subjects that I don’t care about doesn’t benefit my writing and writing about things that I do care about does.  I explained when I talked about “Keeping Up” that I didn’t have an emotional connection to the subject.  This is because I didn’t have fun writing about the subject.  Some people may think that an easy solution to this problem is to simply only written about things that they enjoy writing about.  But in life there will be plenty of times when I will have to write about boring things.  What I have to be able to do is create a connection between me and the topic.  For example I could have looked at patterns in my grades over an extremely long period of time and see what ideas come to my head about how they got that way.  Eventually I will find out so much information that I will have a sufficient amount of opinions that I will be able to write an extremely well written paper on such a simple subject.  In other words trick or force my mind into caring about the subject.  I feel by doing this I can write about anything come across no matter how insignificant it is.  Stories on the other hand don’t require this extra thinking.  In a story you can simply make it up as you go along and end up in any place you want.  As long as a story is creative it is well written.

            The way I see it is that for any writing that isn’t a narrative, research must be done.  If I have to write about something that I don’t know much about, I shouldn’t try to make it longer by stretching each individual detail out, I should do it by adding extra details.  Research can be anything, it can be searching the Internet for facts, or it can be someone looking through their mind for extra details they didn’t realize they knew about the subject.  As I said earlier an emotional connection to the subject is needed.  This connection comes from opinions developed about it.  These opinions come from facts and details known about the subject.  And these little facts and details originate from research.  This explains why some of my writing was good, and some of it was bad.  I knew a lot about some of the topics I wrote about, but very little about others.  Research is always the key to producing a good piece of writing.

            Next quarter a plan to make sure that I know enough background information on a topic before I begin writing.  If I do this I am sure that the overall quality of my writing will greatly improve.  After looking at my blogs over the last quarter I realized that the reason that some of them weren’t as good as others is that I knew more about some of the topics.  If I can do more research on the topics that I don’t know as much about I will be able to form stronger opinions, and in the end, produce better pieces of writing. 

Of Mice and Men Essay

Present or Future

In Of Mice and Men, a novel by John Steinbeck, two characters, George and Lennie face the problems of an average person living during the great depression.  The two companions find work on a farm in the Salinas Valley, where they face temptation, as well as having to overcome personal disabilities in order to fit in.  All of the characters, especially George and Lennie have to deal with these problems, creating a constant battle within themselves between the present and future, or themselves and who they are.

           

Although Lennie and George are the main characters, all of the characters must fight not to give into temptation.  These temptations include blowing their monthly pay on booze and whores.  Crooks, the African American stable boy says this in to Lennie,

“I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever time a whore house or a blackjack game took what it takes.”(76)

This quote says that almost every one has this dream to own their own land, but trade that great future in for instant gratification.  When there are hard times like this, people are so focused on the horrible conditions they are in that they forget that they only have to work for only a few months in order to achieve this dream of owning land.  This doesn’t only happen in the great depression; today many Americans choose to do drugs for the price of all their money and their life, for only minutes of pleasure.  In Of Mice and Men You see people staying on the farm and never leaving, because at the end of every month, instead of saving their money, they gamble it away, and spend it on alcohol and whores.

           

            Although everyone has a battle against themselves, the most displayed self on self-conflict in the story is Lennie trying to fit in, but his mental condition holding him back.  A great example of Lennie's conflict is displayed when George is talking to the boss and Lennie interrupts when he wasn’t supposed to.

            “Lennie looked startled and then in embarrassment hid his face against his knees” (6)

 This shows that Lennie understands his disability, but still struggles to fight it.  He knows that he is left out of society because of this.  Lennie has to work very hard in order to keep up, and even when he works twice as hard as the others, he still forgets, and is an outcast.  Even though Lennie can’t connect to the other workers, he still makes a friend with Crooks, the black stable buck.  They connect instantly because they both don’t belong with the others for reasons that they can’t control, Lennie’s mental problem, and the color of Crooks skin.  Because of Lennie’s disability he also holds George back, these mental problems of course change the life of the person that has them, but is also a burden on the people around them. 

           

            Perhaps the most important character against self-conflict happens with George.  George represents the common man of the great depression, except for one thing, he is with Lennie.  What George ends up doing to Lennie is a clear example of what people will do for instant gratification.

            “God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy.”(11)

George only says this because he is blaming all of his problems on Lennie, not the Great Depression, which it really is.  It is George's own fault for this, instead of saving up money for their house, he wastes it all.  George claims that his life would be different without Lennie, but if he didn’t have Lennie he would loose a since of responsibility, and end up like everyone else.  When Lennie kills Curly’s wife, and runs away, George kills him giving others the impression that he did it for Lennie's own good.  George really did this for his own good.  He got tired of moving around from place to place simply because Lennie was a fool.  When George killed Lennie, he knew that they could have made it to another town.  Having a “Place” in life is so important in that time, people loose their families and their lives, and if you don’t belong to anything, then your life is meaningless.  George always said that he and Lennie were different from everyone else because they had each other, but in the end George realized that he didn’t want to be different, so he killed Lennie.  As I said earlier, people traded in their futures for immediate pleasure; you can see this after George kills Lennie, and then goes with Slim for a drink.  After this George will probably go in to a cycle every month, get some money, and then waste it, over and over again.

           

            People at this time were selfish and rude because they already had everything taken away, so they felt like they deserved more then what they had.  This leads to them having to choose from a future, or an escape from the present.  Most people including George chose the escape.    Lennie must constantly work to act normal to be accepted, but Crooks will never be accepted because he can’t simply pretend to be white.  The difference between George and Lennie is that George gives into temptation, while Lennie continues to dream for their future on the little farm where he can tend the rabbits, without even thinking about giving up hope.  Within the characters of Of Mice and Men, a constant battle rages within each character because of the hardships of the great depression.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Why we Have Friends

Many people's greatest fear in the world is being alone.  People fear this because they are not their self without others.  They need other individuals to share their experiences with and to make them know what right and wrong is.  People know they need this, this is why they try to create strong bonds with their peers in order to insure that they can have a relationship with  someone else that gives them these benefits.  If people don't share their experiences and accomplishments with they will loose self confidence and feel unimportant, because after all, what is a great accomplishment if no one knows about it.  This is also why some people hate others.  If someone lives in a place where it is normal to hate they will try to fit in, in order to have a stable relationship with their peers.  Of course fitting in means having to hate others to.  Also people learn what is right and what is wrong from others.  If someone lives by them self they cant learn how to live from others, and will loose a sense of right and wrong after not to long.  But if to or more people live together, then they can compare their behavior to another person, and the two can learn from each other.  Without others humans can't survive in the way we do now.  Civilization started because we were able top communicate with each other, and that is why it has been hardwired into our DNA to be friends with other people, of course it has to do with survival, but where would the human race be today if it was made of one person.

Response to Billy's post on Justin Bieber

I read this awesome post on Billy's blog!

First of all I completely agree with what Billy is saying.  I believe that his conclusion really sums the point of his essay up.

"In Conclusion, I hope that I influenced all of you Bieber haters , that you would change your mind about how you feel towards Bieber. I also hope that you wont hate on other celebrity's too. If you still feel the same way, just think about how many more girls he could get more than you, or guys." 

I believe there is a reason why many child stars are disliked.  It is because everyone is jealous of their fame, their money, their social life, and how easy it is for them to get girls, or boys.  Get the message guys! Many girls like Justin Bieber, maybe if you started at least pretending you like him girls might just respect you a little more.  I also don't understand why people think he can't sing very well.  Is it just because he has a high voice, I bet if a girl the exact same age as him with the exact same voice would be loved for their talent.  I also think guys have a hard time liking him because they think its cool to hate.  Well I can tell you its not.  When you hate someone, you tend to spent too much negative energy only on hating them, and that makes you look very bad.  Something else that really bothers me is how everyone calls Justin Bieber gay.  Well where is your proof, did he admit it?  Justin Bieber is not at all gay, and even if he was, is that a problem, why can't someone be cool only because they happen to like different things from you and me, in this case sexual preferences.  If you grow up hating everyone who is a little different then you, then you will be a very lonely adult.

Like Billy I will also post a song, my favorite song of his is also "Somebody to Love", so I will publish my second favorite: "Baby"

"Ohh wooaah (3x)
You know you love me,I know you care
Just shout whenever, And I'll be there
You want my love, You want my heart
And we will never ever ever be apart

Are we an item? Girl quit playing
Were just friends, What are you saying
Said theres another, Look right in my eyes

My first love broke my heart for the first time,
And I was like
Baby, baby, baby ohhh
Like baby, baby, baby noo
Like baby, baby, baby ohh
I thought youd always be mine mine

Baby, baby, baby ohh
Like baby, baby, baby noo
Like baby, baby, baby ohh
I thought youd always be mine,mine (oh oh)

For you, I would have done whatever
And I just can't believe, we ain't together
And I wanna play it cool, But I'm losin' you
I'll buy you anything, I'll buy you any ring
And im in pieces, Baby fix me
And just shake me til' you wake me from this bad dream

Im going down, down, down, dooown
And I just cant believe my first love would be around.

And I'm like
Baby, baby, baby ohh
Like baby, baby, baby noo
Like baby, baby, baby ohh
I thought youd always be mine, mineJustin Bieber Baby lyrics found on http://www.directlyrics.com/justin-bieber-baby-lyrics.html

Baby, baby, baby ohh
Like baby, baby, baby noo
Like baby, baby, baby ohhh
I thought youd always be mine, mine

Luda
When I was 13, I had my first love,
There was nobody that compared to my baby,
And nobody came between us or could ever come above
She had me goin' crazy,
Oh I was starstruck,
She woke me up daily,
Don't need no Starbucks.
She made my heart pound,
And skip a beat when I see her in the street and,
At school on the playground,
But I really wanna see her on the weekend,
She know she got me gazin',
Cuz she was so amazin',
And now my heart is breakin',
But I just keep on sayin'...

Baby, baby, baby ohh
Like baby, baby, baby noo
Like baby, baby, baby ohh
I thought youd always be mine, mine

Baby, baby, baby ohh
Like baby, baby, baby noo
Like baby, baby, baby ohh
I thought youd always be mine, mine

(I'm gone)
Yeah, yeah, yeah (6x)
(Now Im all gone, now im all gone, now im all gone)
Gone, gone, gone,(gone)
I'm gone."

 

 

Girl Reading a Letter

I'm doing my post based on this picture

“Mary”, the name I have given the name of the woman in the picture, reads a note from her now ex boyfriend, John, also a made up name.  Last night she met John at a social gathering at a restaurant for the first time.  There at the event they connected really well, so they decided to go back to John’s five story high apartment.  Now we can all probably guess what happened in the apartment based on the very wrinkled condition of the sheets.  For the first time since Mary’s cat Mittens died, she felt like someone actually cared about her.  She felt like this man might be “the one”.  When Mary woke up in the morning instead of seeing John’s handsome face smiling at her, she only found a note and a bowl of fruit.  So she got up, got her clothes from John’s manservant Barry, dressed, then picked up the note and began to read.  The note went like this.

“Dear Maria… erm, Mary,

            Although we had a great time last night, I don’t feel like there is any connection between you and me.  What happened was a mistake, and to be honest Marina… so sorry, Mary, anyway, I had way too much wine, and I actually forgot I was married to a very beautiful wife who I love now just as much as the day I married her.  There is nothing special I see in you.  I’m sure your special someone is out there waiting for you to find him, I just have to tell you that he is not I.  My wife will be returning shortly, and I hope for the good of both of us that you will exit my apartment the moment you finish reading this.  Good bye forever Meredith... I mean Mary.

Sincerely,

John

P.S.  Please don’t eat the fruit, it is for my wife”

This was far too much for Mary to handle, so she dropped the note to the ground for John’s soon to be ex wife to find.  Then she crept slowly to the window, climbed onto the open windowsill, and yelled I’m coming Mittens!  And brought her cold dark loveless life to an end.  Not a single person cried after the thud of Mary hitting the ground five stories below.

               

Keeping Up

When you start something new you feel like you want to get it over with as quickly as possible.  Instead of the goals that you should have, you develop completely new goals based on what you want, not what is best for you.  Here at ASTI, I feel that I have done this over my first month.  I realise that I have only been focused on keeping my personal life as normal as possible, as my grades drop to a point where I have never seen them before.  Now it is time for me to make a decision, education, or fun.  Of course I choose education, but how long will it be until I forget about my friends, my memories and my life.  I thought I was working hard, but now I see that simply doing your homework quickly isn't the same as working hard.  I am willing to make the sacrifices necessary to get to the point that I need to be at.  I am sure it will be hard, but it is nothing that I can't do.

Response to Aakash's Post on "God"

I found this great quote on Aakash's blog.

 In my opinion, people came up with god (no offense intended to anyone) because they needed a reason to explain a cause in their life they couldn't explain, by science such as the Greeks, Hindus, and the Egyptians.

I strongly agree with this statement.  Although I can't say that I don't believe in god, I find it very hard to believe that there is an actual being supervising the universe.  When the ancient people saw amazing things they couldn't always explain it, so they decided to use religion to explain the "unexplainable".  The reason that I said that i can't say that I don't believe in god is that I don't think everything can be explained by science, for example has time been going on forever, I don't think science will be able to explain this because he answer may just be more spiritual then scientific.

Vocabulary List

1. Context
2. Derive
3. Legislation
4 Commission
5. Institute
6. Perceived
7. Initial
8. Attribute
9. Hence
10. Marginal

Come Back To Christian's Rebutal

Here's a link to my opponent's rebuttal.

Christian makes a poor point by saying that the Arizona laws are wrong.  First of he has no evidence to support his opinion.  Second, we have specific evidence that states that there is nothing wrong with the Arizona laws:

[I]mmigration enforcement by police agencies shall be implemented in a manner consistent with federal laws regulating immigration, protecting the civil rights of all persons and respecting the privileges and immunities of United States citizens."

-Janice K. Brewer (Gov. of AZ)

The new Arizona law wasn't created just because a bunch of angry white people hate Mexicans.  It was done because

"There are upwards of 400,000 individuals who have received final deportation orders that are hiding in our communities. Their appeals have run out, and those orders tell them, 'it's time to go.' But, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement can't find them!.. Let me say up front that I respect the new leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and appreciate the fact that they are acknowledging the INS' past mistakes. But there is no way the 2,000 agents they have assigned to find some 400,000 people can get the job done.'

The laws, are only there because the border patrol can't handle the situation alone, and need a little help.

Also they accuse us for racial profiling when we said that if illegal immigration continues then crime will increase.  Now I must say for the second time that that is not what we meant, if more and more people continue to enter the country, as a result there will be fewer and fewer jobs, as a result anyone who has lost their job because of this might turn to stealing to earn the money needed to survive.

Response to Colin's Opening Statement

I'm going to do a response to Colin's opening statement about medical marijuana.


In his opening statement, Colin has many great points about legalizing marijuana.  For example he said that

"Joycelyn Elders, MD, former US Surgeon General, wrote that medical marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, and the “symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS -- or by the harsh drugs sometimes used to treat them.""

This is a great quote to support the fact that marijuana can help to relieve pain, and isn't simply used because it is addictive.  He also goes on to explain that the drug isn't actually as potent as many of the drugs on the legal market today.

Although the information is great, some of it isn't backed up by evidence.  

"We believe marijuana should be a medial option for “medical reasons”. We believe con is wrong and can’t beat us because people with medical problems need it to treat the pain."

This is a very powerful statement, but he has no evidence or examples of marijuana being "needed" to treat pain.  Finally, I believe he could have found a few more details to support the legalization of marijuana, although he did give us a very strong argument, this is still only one example.

Debate Response

First of all, our opponents said that our economy is benefited by illegal immigration.  But we have statistics that prove that not true.

"...the net fiscal cost of immigration ranges from $11 billion to $22 billion per year, with most government expenditures on immigrants coming from state and local coffers, while most taxes paid by immigrants go to the federal treasury."

-Center of Immigration Studies.  October 24 2007

It is clear that Immigration is more of a burden then a benefit.  After this they go on to say that they take jobs that Americans don't want, there is no statistics or evidence to back up, and anyway if someone is unemployed and very low on money, they will take whatever job is offered to them.  Finally they explained that we should allow illegals to stay in America, this makes no sense because as explained by the Herritage foundation in October 3, 2007

"Do not grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Regardless of the penalties imposed, any program that grants individuals who are unlawfully present the legal permission to remain here rewards illegal behavior and is unfair to those who obey the law and go through the regula­tory and administrative requirements to enter the country legally."

I found this great quote from Billy's response to odd girl out, that I think relates to the ASTI constitution.

"During elementary school, I had a friend who was very bossy. He had to have everything his way, and had to make everyone listen to him. One day, this friend got mad because another kid pushed him and called him stupid, and he came running to me. He told me that he wanted to start a group so that he can get back at him. He also said whoever joined gets a cookie everyday at lunchtime. I joined and so did a whole bunch of people. Everyday we had to make fun of the other kid and not let him play with us, to get a free cookie. The kid soon started to cry and everyone left the group hoping not to get in trouble."

I think that this fits into the ASTI constitution very well, especially the "Take responsibility for your actions" part.  This is an excellent example of the kind of bullying that occurs when you are younger: someone gets aggravated by someone else, someone persuades others to not like the person, they pick on him until he cries, then once he cries everyone is worried that they will get the person in trouble and act like it never happened.  This fits in so well with taking responsibility for your actions because once a situation goes to far, then no one wants to take responsibility for their actions so they all just blame their part on someone else.  A lot of bulling in elementary school happens because it is the best and most entertaining way to use your time.  You can't do your homework at recess because you don't really have any, you can't play sports because they can get old really fast, and you can't socialize because you just don't do that very much in elementary school.  So when all the bored and immature elementary schoolers see an annoying person that everyone has a problem with walking by it is pretty obvious what they will do with their time.  This also has a lot to do with including others.  Maybe the kid pushed Billy's friend because that was the only way he knew how to socialize, he might just want to make a new friend.  You must try to include someone before you start to bully them.

Bullying and Ganging Up

13. Just Kidding and Ganging Up from Odd Girl Out By Rachel Simmons

            I have experiences being part of an alliance, as well as being the victim of an alliance; surprisingly the one that had the worst effect on me was being part of an alliance.  When I was part of an alliance, it took a while to affect me, but a couple months after what happened, I realized that because of my actions that person will think badly of me for a long time, and possibly the rest of their life.  I had a chance to get their respect, and I blew it because we were a little different and I felt like making fun of their differences.  Unlike most people doing this same assignment, I have the shame to say that it was I who started the alliance.  After a while a started to have regrets about what I was doing, I wanted to start to be nicer, but the people who I dragged into the situation made me believe that the cool thing to do was to continue to gang up on the person.

            The reason people bully others is that bullies feel it is the only way for them to fit in.  What many people don’t realize is that you can get even more respect making friends then you can bullying.  The reason bullies choose not to make friends is because when they see someone that is different they don’t try to be friends with them because they don’t know how to make friends, so they bully them because it amuses their peers.  This form f respect that they get from bullying does not last very long, once the bully stops being mean to the person for the shortest amount of time, nobody has any respect for them because they didn’t care about the bully, they only thought what he was doing was funny.

            The reason people want to hurt their peers is that they feel like they are better and want to prove it to everyone.  When someone sees someone doing something that they think is strange they try to make them stop doing it by making them feel insecure about what they are doing.  What many people don’t realize is that the best way to look cool is to get along with others and respect what they do.