Morrie Aphorisms Project

The aphorism I chose was, " without love, we are birds with broken wings" What I think Morrie means by this is that love is a fundamental part of being a happy or satisfied person. Without it we tend to look for things to replace it. Things like gambling, drugs, money, etc. Looking for something better than love tends to take up most of people's life and can essentially leave them crippled. (In a figurative sense)  another way to interpret this is that the broken wing represents the lack of freedom that comes with not knowing love. Love  frees people to be able to show affection towards others and to receive the same affections. And the bird is the ultimate symbol of freedom, hence a bird with a broken wing so someone who is not free to show their emotions because they don't know love.

Probably one of the best (in my opinion) and most literal examples of this is Harry Potter.  In the book one of the most important part of the plot is a prophecy that claims that Harry is the chosen one and has "a power the dark Lord knows not" which is literally love.  The fact that Harry's mother loved him enough to die for him is the one thing that Voldemort did not expect and as such he was unable to kill Harry.  Since Voldemort it is unable to feel love he does not anticipate that anybody would love their child enough to die for them and as a result  is destroyed. This continues to be a reoccurring theme in all of the books as people who love Harry help him even though that tends to ruin their lives.  Voldemort continues to be basically blindsided by this as he can't feel love and can't relate to them.

 I really agree with this aphorism, because it kind of just makes sense to me .  I mean the majority of us wouldn't have survived past being infants if it wasn't for the fact that our mother loved us enough to keep dealing with all the stress that raising a child brings.  Then later on in life if it was for the support and love from friends and family many of us would've given up on a lot of things. So although some  people will say that putting love above everything else make somebody weak and easy to manipulate, in reality love is a driving force in our society. Its been shown in a lot of pop culture too.  The basic premise behind romantic comedies trying to find love, sure they find it in a funny way but they do find it .

I think my  on aphorism would be something like, " just deserves is called that for a reason, it is deserved"  this is something that I really believe in as I feel that somebody who does something deserving of punishment can't really complain because they did something to earn it. If they  decided to do an action then they should have to do with the consequences.

Socratic Seminar Reflection

The Socratic seminars have made me think deeper on things like death (which came up a lot), life, friends, society, and family. Very often during the seminars we often analyze these things wit extreme focus, and then we start to wonder about their possible meanings for Tuesdays With Morrie. Honestly without the seminars most of us wouldn't think too deeply on any of the topics brought up. Analysis of things we do and why we do them really made me think about how the reading affects our actions. Then reading more in the books would just add on to what we had discussed and would elaborate on the ideas brought up, making the seminars all the more interesting.

I noticed that, for me at least, there was a lot of participation.  I spoke a lot more than I did during other seminars before these, and  what I said was a bit more relevant to the topics.  I noticed also that for my goals they all kind of shifted around a bit. One day it wants to try to not talk over others, the next it had something to do with bringing other people into the conversation.  It all depends on how the day went and what I notice from other people in the group. Actively, I tried to see how I could bring up things from my seminar guys into the discussion, and I tried to consider more what other people were saying.

 As a class, the seminars started out with a lot of not so in-depth discussions on a multitude of topics, and then funneled  down to the main topics of the book and a lot of very deep conversations of them and their meaning. For example the last seminar that we had had the least amount of topics but we discussed a lot more personal effects of the topics and our opinions on. Then for participation when we're doing a lot better towards the end with everybody contributing at least a couple things.  We had the least amount of participation in the beginning, which overall was stillgreat, and the most towards the end.

The Perfect Day

For me a perfect day would be spent near Lake Michigan. We would get there early, abou nine or ten in the morning, to set up. A good majority of my extended family and friends would be there. Near the lake there is a grassy hill that leads down into the sand. That is where we would set up. People would bring blankets and chairs to sit on, and tables for the food. My uncle would brig his grill to cook, and his boat to drive out onto the lake. The younger people would spend hours swimming or being pulled on a raft behind the boat, and our parents would stay behind to cook and socialize.

Then when the food was ready we would come back and dry off. Then, sitting together, everyone would eat and talk. People would lay down and sunbathe until everyone was done. Then we would go out on the lake again. Later, when the sun was setting, we would all help to clean. We would load everything onto the cars and start driving home. When we arrived, me and my family would gather around in the living room to watch a movie. Afterwards we woul all get ready and go to sleep.

I remember that when I was really young we did this all the time during the Summer months. Everybody would go, and we alway came home exhausted but happy. Sadly, the visits waned out as we started to age. These used to be the highlight of my week, but now I can't even remember the last time one of these days happened. I suppose these kinds of things go with time, but I sometimes wish that they didn't. The nostalgia is strong in this one.

What 'Tuesday' Has Inspired You

 I think that Tuesday which has inspired me the most is the second Tuesday about feeling sorry for yourself. This one especially effective me when Morrie talked about  how he only allowed a little bit of time for self-pity and how lucky he felt that he had enough time to say goodbye to the people you love. This is especially astounding when you think about how he's dying, how he's going to die. And to think that he can lucky woman most people nowadays  moan and groan about the simplest of things and yet he doesn't feel sorry even though he's most likely going to suffocate to death. It makes me feel almost as though most people don't deserve to feel sorry for themselves as much as they do. Don't get me wrong people suffer all the time, but when a man who's dying the way Morrie  is dying says that he's thankful for it it kind of puts everything into perspective.  I think that if people, especially young people, decided to do every day with Morrie does they would feel so much happier in their day-to-day lives. I hope that one day I can look back on everything and think that I lived just as happy life is Morrie seems to believe he is living.

 I think the  message is especially important for people like Mitch, rushing through life and constantly  bemoaning how miserable they are, and yet they don't seem to be very miserable when considering how bad things could be for them.  They especially can't seem to be able to understand how Morrie could be happy in the situation like this. I plan example of this is a page on page 57 with Mitch thinks, "I studied him in his chair, unable to stand, wash,  to put on his pants. Lucky? Did he really say lucky?"  Which clearly shows how shocked he is that Morrie seems to be perfectly content with how his life is. He sees his old professor withering away and most likely expects him to be upset and better, but knowing Morrie  as he had  is it really a surprise to him? Or is it just that he's forgotten things that Morrie taught him?

 Really, with all of the great messages in the last five chapters it was a bit difficult to pinpoint the one that really hit me the most. However re-reading the passage it's actually kind of obvious.  In a time when people seek sympathy for, and get sympathy for, the simplest things it really is important to remember that our lives can always be worse. Besides, even if they do get worse that's no excuse just stick your head in the mud and cry about  how bad everything is. ALS is an extremely severe disease, yet look at Morrie! He seems to be a lot happier than the majority of the people around him. He is the one who most people would assume deserves to be the most upset, but he recognizes that having self-pity won't help him in anyway. So he decides to live his life the best way that he can. And really isn't that something that we should all strive for?

Tuesday's With Morrie Bucket List

There are a lot of things to think about in just the first few pages. The ending is pretty much told to us. Morrie is going to die and as much as we might want it to, that won't change. The finality of that fact, and the fact that Morrie is not afraid of hi own demise, is a bit jarring. In most stories the death of a protagonist is seen as something to avoid at all costs, so it is really refreshing to see how calm the characters in Tuesday's With Morrie are about death. They, or at least Morrie, sees death in something that is a part of life, and that it is not wise to live life in the fear of death.  In a way to celebrate that, I have made a list of things that I hope to do before I die.

BUCKET LIST

• Travel the globe
• Get a tattoo
• Swim in the ocean
• Meet a celebrity
• Graduate high school 
• Graduate college
• Get my driver's licence 
• Go skydiving
• Make a family 
• Change someone's life

It's probably not the most interesting bucket list to ever be created, but I don't want to miss any part of it. I don't mind missing one or two, but I think that meeting my goals will give my life purpose. Otherwise, what am I living for? 

Book Blog 4/13/16

Warning: spoilers (duh)

The book that I read this week was Dorthy Must Die by Danielle Page. I finished it so I will do my best to leave out major (minor ones will be included) spoilers for those who are interested in it. The book is basically a re-imagining/sequel to The Wizard of Oz. In the book a young girl, Amy Gumm, from Kansas is swept up by a tornado and dropped in Oz. Except its nothing like the Oz she had heard of. Everything is upside down and backwards. The good have gone bad, and the bad just might be good. That is about as far as I can go without going into spoiler territory. Warning: the book has quite a bit (a lot) of gore. I'm not kidding. People's arms are ripped off, the trademark cute furry animal is brutally killed, and someone is melted. You have been warned.

Prompt #1: Describe your least favorite character and explain why. Describe your most

favorite character and explain why.

The spot for least favorite character has to be a tie. It's between Dorthy and Gert. Dorthy is a horrible person in this book. She is malicious and enjoys torturing people for the smallest of things. Especially the people who serve her. She is the main antagonist and the reason behind almost all of the pain in this book. My other least favorite character is Gert. She is one of the protagonists and the leader of the rebellion against Dorthy. The only problem I have with her is her methods. She is the type of person who believes that the ends justify the means. She was willing to even inflict psychological torment on the off chance that it would give Amy the power boost that she needed. All in all definitely not one of the best leaders

My favorite character has to be Glamora. She is also one of the main protagonists and the twin sister of Glinda. Glamora, unlike certain characters, doesn't pretend that she is anything other than herself. She is straightforward about why she does things and never sugarcoats the truth. Glamora has admitted multiple times that her motives aren't pure and are she isn't ashamed about it. Most importantly she has depth. Her reason for fighting isn't just, "Whats happening is wrong!", she fights for revenge. She was betrayed by the one closest to her, and she intends on repaying the favor. Blatant disregard for hero tropes in fantasy books are uncommon, so she definitely stands out as my favorite.

Prompt #2:List five major events in order from which happened first to last.

1. Amy is caught up in a tornado that takes her to Oz.
2. Amy is captured and taken to the Emerald city. 
3. Amy escapes and flees to the headquarters for The Order Of The Wicked.
4. The Order takes Amy on her first mission. (spoilers ensue)
5. The ball at the castle takes place.

 

3rd Quarter Reflections

Of the books you have read this quarter, which is your favorite? Why?

My favorite book from this quarter was definitely Shadow and Bone. It has some of my favorite aspects of literature in it. It is a fantasy, with some action and adventure in the mix. Best of all the characters and relationships between them are realistic and not forced. The conflicts make sense (in that universe) and there are more motivations than '"she's the good guy" and "he's the bad guy". All that added in with the supernatural abilities of certain characters makes the book amazing.

In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in ELA?

I think that so far in the quarter I have done a lot better in the vocabulary tests. I will be the first admit that my spelling is bad on the best of days, and event on the good tests I would just barely get a 3, that plus the fact that my handwriting is horrible, and its no surprise that vocab isn't my best subject. However, I am doing a lot better now. I put in a little more time to studying, so I expect my grades to continue going up. Hopefully this trend continues, as now I am getting 3s and 4s.

What is something you have accomplished this quarter that you are proud of?

Something that I did this quarter that I am proud of is, going up to present to the class and not making a fool of myself. I tend to get very nervous when I do any kind of public speaking, so finding out that we had to present our butterfly project to the class was like a nightmare come true. I wanted to avoid this at all costs. Even so I had the few points that I would bring up prepared just in case. When I did get called up I was terrified that I would slip up and forget what I was going to say. Thankfully nothing like that happened, so I'm pretty glad. Even more so because I got a good grade for it.

What has been the most challenging part of  3rd Quarter for you, and what did/can you do to help overcome this?

The most challenging part of Quarter 3 was keeping up with all of the blogs. There were a lot of them recently, especially this last week. That added on to the fact that we haven't been able to take our IPads home all week made finishing all the work very difficult. The easiest way to fix the problem would probably be to use a home computer, there might be certain things we have downloaded on the iPads that my home laptop couldn't get access to. Thankfully we aren't expected to do homework over the break, or a lot of us would be in trouble.
 

Life is Beautiful

Considering the fact that both these pieces were focused on the holocaust, there are a lot of similarities. For example Guido, the main character of Life is Beautiful, has similarities with both Eliezer and his father. In the aspect that everything he does is for his son and wife, to the point that he dies to keep them safe. Similarly, Elie does everything to help his father in any way and his father ends up dying and in doing so he removes a burden from his son. Another similarity is in time and space. From things like the tatto on Guido's arm we can guess that they are in Auschwitz. Yet, even before that things like a hatred towards Jews and the racial supremacy were being brought up. These things show how the things in Italy and Romania were connected with the Nazis.

On the other hand there were definite differences. For one thing the characters in Life is Beautiful  are far less religious than Elie and his father. The audience never sees Guido, Joshua, or Dora mention praying or any Jewish holidays. Elie, however, is extremely religious and his faith is a major theme in the book. There was also the fact that in Life is Beautiful Guido does his best to maintain his cheerfulness and humor for his son. He makes the entirety of life in a concentration camp into a game in order to keep his son happy sand safe. On the other hand,  in Night, the reality of the death and pain has no filter. Elie and his father do not try to make light of the situation, they merely try to survive it.

Considering the fact that Life is Beautiful and Night are on the same topic, it is surprising how different their tones are. In the beginning Life is Beautiful is cheerful and humorous, full of jokes and laughter. Guido goes out of his way to make things extravagant and hilarious. Before things start going downhill, he seems very happy with Dora and Joshua, having finally gotten the books store that he wanted. Night, however, starts out with things like foreshadowing the deaths of his family. That added with how fast the problem shows ups make s it far more somber than the movie. On the other hand they both share in the fact that towards the middle and end of the story it takes a very dark turn. In Night there is the death march and the death of Elie's father. Subsequently, in Life is Beautiful there is the capture of the family and the death of Guido. Both cases are prime examples of the dark and somber mood that the stories left on.

One example of life being beautiful was in the beginning of the movie when Guido and Dora keep running into each other. It is shown as an example of fate, and that sometimes people need to choose their own happiness over things like riches and expectations. Another example of this, is when at the concentration camp, Guido plays the record out the windo so that Dora can hear it. This is true, because it shows that despite their separation they still love each other and hope to be reunited.

Argumentative AOW

Now take a moment to reflect upon your impressions of what you have learned from the array of articles in at least two well written paragraphs, using evidence from your graphic organizer.
 In this gallery walk there were a lot of great articles with topics ranging from the pros and cons of nuclear power to  GMOs in food. For example one pretty interesting article was the one that Sofia used which discussed the impacts of the CIA giving the torture report out as information.  Kezia's article was about US recycling programs and whether or not they were too expensive.  Connecting on that was Jackson's article about how nuclear power could fix climate change and be less expensive.

  There was also Max's article about regulating e-cigarette's, which in a way connected to Lorin's article about abortion. It may seem odd, but they both connect to the health of a  certain group of people. Mainly people who are younger such as young moms or minors who buy e-cigarettes.  It seemed rather amazing that two things that are kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum  could be connected in such away. But then again when you think about the wide variety of topics that was had this week it's not all that surprising.

What seems to be the most pressing argument from what you learned today? Does this topic/argument affect you personally?
All of the topics that were brought up have the potential to be huge in the future. However. The one that seemed the most pressing to me was Lorin's article about abortion. It is currently a hot topic in the media since its legalization in 1973. People are usually on one side or the other. Those for abortion are called "pro-choice" and those who are against it are called "pro-life". Often times it boils down to a human rights debate, with the main question being: Who's rights should be more important, the mother's or the fetus'? It is especially important now, as our current president is pro-life. This could mean bad things for people who are pro-choice.

This does really affect me, because as a girl these decisions have the potential to really affect my future. I've seen instances of situations like this in my family, and it made me pretty confused. About six years ago two of my  cousins got pregnant and they decided the babies. This time they decided to keep the babies even though they weren't ready for it. There so many cases like this where the mother doesn't want to keep the child and is having an abortion was illegal they might have to go through less savory  means to get it done.

Night

When the book starts Elie is a very religious boy. He values his studies and wants to find a person to help him go farther/ he says things like, “Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?”(4). This shows just how much he values his god and he prayer that he is learning. Then, in the camps, he is changed. He no longer believes as strongly, and even then it is only anger he feels toward god. He abandons religion as he feels it has abandoned him, especially when he says, “For the first time I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?”(33) This proves how livid he is about what is happening, and even more furious that god has done nothing to help them.

This change is also reflected in his relationship to his father. In the beginning they are very close to and protective of each other. As stated in the book, "Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal's flesh."(39). This shows that, at least in the beginning, Elie loved his father enough to defend him from injury and other prisoners attacking him. Alas, it wouldn't last. He (Eliezer) would eventually come to resent his father and his weaknesses. For example, "What's more, if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn't he have avoided Idek's wrath?"(54). This shows how the brutality of the camp affected Elie and made him more harsh and cruel, even to the person he cares for the most.

These new developments in his character are not at all welcomed by Elie. He feels remorse for the things that he is doing, but doesn't know how to fix it. For example it says, "...against my will, I found myself whispering the words: 'May His name be exalted and sanctified'"(34) This shows that although Elie wishes to turn from god he still carries the instinct to pray in the face of death. There are also moment that he feels guilt for the things that he thinks of. As shown here, "I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep... And deep inside me...I might have found something like: Free at last!"(112) This shows that after the death of his father he is grateful, but doesn't want to be and that he feels guilty for that.

Wiesel, Elie. Night, Elie Wiesel. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Print.

Butterfly Project "Night In The Ghetto"

   

"Night In The Ghetto"
Another day has gone for keeps
Into the bottomless pit of time.
Again it has wounded a man, held captive
By his brethren.
After dusk, he longs for bandages,
for soft hands to shield the eyes
From all the horrors that stare by day.
But in the ghetto, darkness, too, is kind
To weary eyes that all day long
Have to watch.

Dawn crawls again alon the ghetto streets
Embracing all who walk this way.
Only a car like a greeting from a long-gone world
Gobbles up the dark with fiery eyes-
That sweet darkness that falls upon the soul
And heals those wounds illuminated by the day...
Along the streets come light and ranks of people
Like a long black ribbon loomed with gold

I commented on:
Robert's
David's
Sophie's
Kezia's
Jackson's

Holocaust AOW Impressions

 Quite a few articles that I learned about today were about survivors and their stories. In a lot of these articles the situations that they were in word definitely not ideal. One example a survivor spoke about how they were born in one of the concentration camp.   Another one talks about going into the camp at 15 and only surviving because they needed to greet people at the gate. Another one talks about how an Olympic medalist used force papers to survive in Germany.

 For the majority of the other articles we talked about new information coming up from the holocaust. One of them reveal documents about women being forced to have a Borsch and's and being raped, and confirmed the number of prisoners was higher than we originally believed being somewhere around 15–20,000,000 Jews. Another one talked about the fact that  holocaust Memorial day was not recognized until 2004 by the UN. And how the Soviets used the holocaust to claim that communism was far better than fascism. Then another one spoke about how not only Jews were killed but the mentally ill and disabled were killed as part of the trial project.

Perseverance Blog

The Nick as shown in the video is very courageous in dealing with his problem. Despite the issues he would have in doing most normal things with his lack of limbs. He also shows a surprising amount of integrity. He doesn't sugar coat his disability and claim that his life is easy, but he is honest and tells them that although his life is difficult he is happy and can have fun. Finally, Nick has enough  confidence to not be ashamed of himself. When he talked about being gawked at he was not embarrassed, but he would spin it humorously by seeming surprised by himself.

In sixth grade I was really struggling. I was always missing assignments, and my grades were slipping dramatically from the easy A's and B's that I was used to. Towards he end of the year I started getting better, and my mom puts it up to me not being used to middle school, but I think that for a time I kind of gave up. I'm glad that I'm doing a lot better now, but I think this was necessary to me realizing how important school was. This is similar to how when Nick was a child he was in despair about not being able to do certain things. We both have moved past that to better things and can now call that a lesson learned.

Berlin Memorial Blog

I learned that there are a lot of rights and privileges that we take for granted that could be taken away. For example the little things like being allowed to go to a pool or being able to eat a certain food are such staples of life that we hardly ever notice how essentially they areuntil they're gone.  The Nazis were very creative and taking away the things that Jews could do in their lives. They started by attacking certain groups of people and taking away the little things but those eventually added on to each other until there was very little the Jews could do.  I could not imagine being in that situation and I think that for the people who experienced it it must've been a very shocking wake up call.

 I think that they built this morning in order to keep the memory alive for the people who experienced it and for their family members. They must have realized what he did was wrong in the years after word and wanted to attempt to make it right. Do you know if they couldn't at least keeping the memory alive  would help them to remember the people who died for that. I think if it wasn't for morels such as these will you may not know as much about the holocaust as we do today. Thankfully the people of the past did not want us to forget.

 The numbers passed on different years usually we're not always the same. For example the year of the Olympics in Berlin and then you before that not a lot will pass, however in the years after words a lot of them work. Also in the beginning most of the laws passed only focused on certain groups, but towards the end of the war  they were more focused on the Jewish community as a whole. Also as far as I can tell the year with the most laws passed was 1938, two years after the 1936 Olympics. But not all of them had this many, most likely due to the fact that they were not trying to draw attention to themselves from the other countries. Also as far as I can tell the year with the most laws passed was 1938, two years after the 1936 Olympics. But not all of them had this many, most likely due to the fact that they were not trying to draw attention to themselves from the other countries.

 I think that's the one I would have the most difficulty with would probably be the law that said all Jewish people had to display the store on their home, and the law that states the Jews were no longer allowed to testify in court against Germans. This opens up a whole can of worms where Germans who maybe they're having a bad day, or maybe they just feel like it can go into any Jewish home and do whatever they want to them without any repercussions. The crime rate against Jews must've gone off up horrifically after this, because there was literally nothing but the people being attacked could do against their attackers .

Quarter Two Reflection

I think that my biggest improvement in ELA was inbedding quotes. The way that I did this originally was by introducing them directly after a topic sentance or transition. This way there was no context, and the transition was very choppy. During this quarter we read some text that demonstrated different ways to add quotes, and I decided to try it. It is by no means perfect, but it is far better than the way things were before. I hope that by useing some of the new methods I can Add some diversety to my work. Old habits die hard, so i know it may be very difficult but I will try my best.

One thing that I have accomplished this year is joining battle of the books. Every year I wanted to join , but I never worked up the nerve, as none of my friends wanted to join with me. Thankfully this year I do! As I don't really know how this works I hope that my groupmates can help me get accustomed to the way this works. I'm not going to be idealistic and expect us to win the entire thing, I know that begginers luck wont help, but I do hope that we don't completely fail. I can't wait to get started.

The most challenging part of second quarter was probably keeping up with my homework. I don't like weighting things by hand, due in part to my terrible hand writing. Add that to the fact that I am a world class procrastinator, and I never get anything done. This then results in me putting things on for other days, then doing a weeks work in one day. Now it is still leagues better than last year, but that's mostly because I'm getting better at coming up with things on the fly. I do hope over the next two quarters that I can improve, other wise this will be an example interesting freshman year.

TKAM Comparative Blog

  I think that the biggest difference between the book and the movie is, that aunt Alexandria was not present at all during the movie. In the book she was a prominent figure, she was set up to show the differences between Atticus and the rest of Maycomb. For example, " Grandma says it's bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now he's turned out a nigger-lover we'll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again."  This shows Alexandria's opinion on Atticus's behavior in comparison to children's, this is  not showed in the movie at all. Another reason that this is a major difference is, but she shows how the Finches differ from the rest of the town.  For example, "Maycomb welcomed her… Miss Rachel next-door had Aunty for coffee in the afternoons, and Mr. Nathan Radley went so far as to come up in the front yard and say he was glad to see her."  This is the way of contrasting how the town ask around Atticus to how they act around Alexandria, none of these people would be doing these things for Atticus yet they do that for Alexandria. Again this is hardly, if at all, shown in the movie.

In my opinion books portray the story better. There are a lot of things in the book did you not translate into the movie that really add to the story. For example, we see less of characters like Miss Maudie, and Mrs. Dubose. Then there are the characters that we don't see at all, Such as aunt Alexandria and Mr. Dolphus Raymond.  Another example our events that were important to the plot being completely removed. Things such as Mrs. Dubose death, Christmas at the landing, and the mixed children. These things really add depth to the characters and the plot yet they were not added. I understand that in a movie based on book it is hard to add everything, however there are certain things that did not need to be removed that I wish had been left in.