Hold Your Head Up: Hope and Fear

As mid quarter is fast approaching, the amount of music that I listen to per day has gone up immensely. Working on projects late into the night, I always have an earbud in my ear or a headset on my head. Rap is my favorite genre of music lately, and it has gotten me through a lot in the past year. Swim meets, tough projects, or even when I'm just feeling unmotivated or in need of something to get my head in the game. With rap being my favorite genre, I obviously listen to Eminem, but Macklemore has grown on me immensely as of late. People who base opinions off of one of his newer songs, Thrift shop, may think that he is a corny grown up who never matured. But he's not. I was intrigued after hearing him on the radio one day, so I looked what albums he had made on Google. His album The Language of My World stood out to me, so I started listening to it and realized he had much more talent than some of his newer songs showed.

Song number six, Hold Your Head Up, lasting four minutes and twenty-five seconds, became my favorite song and is still in my top three. Now, you might be wondering what this song has to do with hope, fear, and a little more than half a dozen pieces of literature. As soon as I started doing that teenager thing, where you zone out while listening to a song and don't pay attention to anything, I noticed that this song is filled with lyrics that are or are almost polar opposites of one another. Light and dark, burden and blessings, truth and lies. This song has it all. So as I'm listening to it, I key in to one line Macklemore (2005) sings specifically, "The brighter the light, the darker the shadow". The number of things you can obtain from this line of text is immense, but I derive one point specifically. The greater something you could earn is, the harsher the consequences for failure can be.

Say you have a math test. You have a decent grade, but if you aced this test, your grade would increase to an A. But guess what, if you don't do well on said test, then your grade would plummet to something beyond repair. There is a correlation between reward (light), and failure (darkness). It is the same when you are in a life in death situation. If you have a gun pointed towards you, and the person is about to shoot but gets distracted, what do you do? Do you lunge forward to disarm the man and possibly save your own life, or do you stand still and pray he has a change of heart? Well, some might say hope for life causes you to lunge at the man, while others might say fear of death would cause you to lunge forward.

To me, “Wool” by Hugh Howey made the biggest impact on me out of the stories we read. I finished the book at 10 pm at night, and I particularly remember just sitting there questioning truth, goodness, hope, fear, and censorship. Thinking back to that thought process, I remember being particularly caught up on why Holston had acted the way he had. Looking more closely, it seems that hope was the main affecting factor out of the two (hope and fear being the two). Like when Hugh Howey explains that “The first year without her, Holston had waited, buying into her insanity, hoping she’d come back” (22). Hope is what caused Holston to wait an entire year for his wife after she had cleaned the outside view. Then when Holston began to think about going out to find her, hope was still what caused him to do so. But even if fear had been replaced with this hope, the ends would have been similar or the same.

Well guess what, this entire time we have been debating as a class has been about the wrong things. This entire time we have been debating about which is more powerful, hope or fear. Don’t get me wrong, they are both completely different things, but we end up with the same or similar result(s) from either or. What we should be discussing is in what situations is hope more prevalent, and in what situations is fear more prevalent. Basically, in what situations does either take over? They end in similar ways, but when they take hold of us and how they do so is what I think we should be more interested in.

Starting with hope and then leading to fear, I would like to bring up my favorite story of the many we read. Kurt Vonnegut’s “All The King’s Horses” covers a game of chess (which is one of favorite board games) gone awry when a group of sixteen Americans become POW and are forced to duel a man by the name of Pi Ying for their lives. Colonel Kelly is not only one of the men captured, but his wife and two kids are there as well, making this situation all the more dire for him. Both Pi Ying and Kelly are the players deciding action, and both of them have 10 minutes to decide each turn.

An hour into the game, Kelly comes across the choice of sacrificing his son Jerry to save the rest of the group. Being a soldier, Kelly has been taught to be tough in these situations, his fear has been replaced with training, and so the only thing that is left is hope. Vonnegut explains hope in war and life in general when he states, “When human beings are attacked, x, multiplied by hundreds or thousands, must die--sent to death by those who love them most” and that “Kelly’s profession was the choosing of x” (17). It’s tough to think about this decision, being that he is sacrificing his son because of the hope of life for the rest of the remaining group. That same hope being the thing that I have repeatedly directly and indirectly correlated with light and goodness. Being the Christian I am, I will always do my best to focus on the positive in life and further in my belief of hope, but that doesn’t mean sacrifices aren’t necessary.

It is this hope that leads Kelly to his actions, as well as the same hope I have correlated with light and goodness in previous blogs, that takes hold in people in situations where they have time to sort through their beliefs and realize that they need to fight to the end. If their beliefs are based on positive emotions and goodness, and they have time to realize this, hope will be the more likely of the two to take hold. But, if they have focused on negativity and emotions such as greed and jealousy, or if they haven’t had time to think about their own beliefs, then they will turn towards fear.

For instance, Kelly’s wife Margaret has no power towards her own survival, the survival or her kids or husband, or the survival of the rest of the group as the game goes on. And as much as she cares about her own life, she is a parent. As my parents often tell my brother and I, they love me and care about me always, and will go to opposite ends of the earth to keep my brother and I safe. When his first piece was taken, Kelly listened as the Sergeant was taken to a back room and shot. Crying out of grief, he looked to his wife for comfort as he usually did, but instead he saw “...the fear and reproach in Margaret's eyes” (Vonnegut 10). His wife had been reduced to a emotionless wreck, trapped in her own world of worry from the fear of death, for her, her family, and the rest of the group.

You may be thinking to yourself, ‘Why didn’t she turn to hope, she had time to think about her beliefs, and she couldn’t possibly be so negative?’ It's because she doesn’t have time to think about it, as she has no control over the game and therefore can’t possibly predict anything as she doesn’t have psychic powers. And when something does happen, she won’t have time to think about what to do as anyone could be dragged immediately to the back room, that person could even be her. And so she had turned to fear, being that the only thing she has time to focus on is the things immediately around her that she can control. Also, with this situation having the lives of her sons on the line, fear leads her to being in an emotionless and hopeless tailspin of infinite proportions.

Major Barzov is a Russian major who stands watch as the game goes, making comments as if the people he is talking to are immature students and he is the professor. As much as I can’t stand him and think he is a butthead, he does make a good point, saying that “There isn’t a grain of luck in the game…” (Vonnegut 15). As much as he is right on luck being non existent, you can also correlate the point to differing between hope and fear, and when in what situations they take hold. Hope takes hold when you have time to mull over your beliefs and realize you need to be positive, while fear takes hold in situations where actions need to be made fast as well as when a person has time to think about their beliefs and realize negativity has always been their go-to thought process.

I have made points such as hope and fear being correlated with positivity and negativity, that we are stupid to arguing about which is stronger and that we should be discussing when and how they occur, and that Barzov is a butthead. Reading the entirety of this blog, you have learned my beliefs, and know that I am set in these beliefs and will be stubborn in the face of opposition.

The Republic: Proving That We Can't See Truth or Justice If It's In Front Of Our Face For The Past 2300 years

Christians have designated the Bible as the book that they have based opinion and beliefs on ever since it was created. The Republic? Well in my opinion, it's the thinking mans bible. Obviously being the huge Christian I am, I believe that everyone should read and do their best to follow the beliefs of the bible, but you can definitely learn a lot from The Republic as well. Unlike almost any other book I can think of, The Republic made me think, so props to Plato for that at least.

But it isn't just that it makes you think, it's what it makes you think about. This book has taken some beliefs that I haven't questioned for years, or haven't had an opinion on in the first place, and completely recreated them. It has made me question the essence of justice, ideas like the "tripartite soul", and how censorship affects so many of our beliefs and customs. For crying out loud, this book has even made me think about a cave for weeks!

I will always believe the bible above all else, but nothing can be said about this book not teaching you something what so ever. Everyone can learn something from it, but to me, I can't help but keep thinking about the tripartite soul. It describes how justice would be perfect if Appetite, Reason, and Soul all did their own tasks without interfering with each other. At first, this idea seemed foreign. Justice to me had always been signified by Batman. But as the ball started to roll, I looked back at the previous year of English, realized my idea of truth had matured then, and then accepted the fact that my idea of justice could be improved as well. So like any insane person, I rolled with it.

It was worth it.

Rolling down the hill, everything started to make sense as I got closer to the end, as I went over bump after bump on the way. Perhaps it made more sense after each bump because I was repeatedly banging my head as I got closer to understanding the idea fully, but that's just a metaphor. But seriously, this topic may be tough to understand at first, but as soon as you start to understand it it becomes so much easier.

Appetite is described as physical needs such as food, money, and power. To me, this is physical things.

Reason is described as seeking things such as knowledge, wisdom, and truth. To me, this is emotional things.

Spirit is described as the part that is ambitious and competitive. To me, this is spiritual things.

Until I thought about it in depth, I couldn't really put my finger on what had caused me to attach most of my thought on this book to this one thing. But then it hit me (unlike my rolling metaphor). The tripartite soul is basically a previous version of theories that I possess on things like this. You can go check out the previous blog here. The only difference that I could possibly see is that the tripartite soul seems to be based/created by a person not so devoted to God as I am. This can be represented by the fact that this bases spirit on being not so important as I would deem it to be.

But that is why I can't get over this book, even though it has only been a handful of weeks since reading up to only chapter 7! This book makes me think hard on things I have already accepted, and the things that I seem to have the same opinion as Plato on are only strengthened by this.

Post Blog Thoughts
I would have wrote more about the cave, but I haven't processed the idea enough to put stuff down on this blog. And this only serves to further my point about this being a thinking mans book.




A slightly more detailed description of the three parts can be found here at this blog that I used as a resource:
https://smallsimple.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/the-tripartite-soul-reason-spirit-appetite/

Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Elements In Things Fall Apart

I didn't even read all the topic choices before knowing what I wanted to write about. As soon as I read "What forces are at play?", my mind just immediately connected ruffly 6 or so things together and if I even try to write about anything else, it's gonna be crap compared to a blog on this topic.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe really started to bore me before I reached part 2. But then the story picked up from being about Okonkwo, the boring character and greedy try hard who already has been blessed with amazing work ethic and physical fortune (Including 3 wives, an entire complex with outer walls and inner homes, and strong healthy kids and plenty of food), to Okonkwo, the man banished along with his entire family for 7 years for accidentally shooting a kid. That is two pretty similar Okonkwos if you ask me, one which is rich and renowned for physical well being and anger in frustrating situations (In his body being built and in owning alot of physical items), to one which is now poor again but is still angry in frustrating situations along with being hard working to get back to his previous status.

The only thing that changes in either Okonkwo is how much he owns and where he now lives (Fatherland and then Motherland). Essentially, Okonkwo himself hasn't changed, but what he owns is what has changed. This is where I explain my chiropractors theory, which isn't solely on this book, but on life in general. My chiropractors name is Daniel McDonald, and he believes all things can be placed into 3 categories. These include...

Physical Things - Things you can touch. You can feel it with your sense of touch. It is physical and very real, existing in this dimension. You can control your own physical being.

Emotional Feelings - Things you can feel, but not physically. Emotions, thoughts, feelings are all examples of things in this dimension. You can control your emotional being.

Spiritual Beliefs - This one is the very confusing one, because it is very hard to explain.This includes beliefs, specifically your religion and "spiritual" beliefs, and things you have done for those beliefs. Like the other two, you can control your own spiritual being, this time by choosing what you believe in and what you do/are willing to do for your beliefs.

These three "dimensions" are intertwined and add up to what life is. Life is a mix of everything, and can not be enjoyed or even experienced with out some amount of all three being present and making up what we consider life. The reason that I order the 3 dimensions in this order is that they not only increase in complexity, but in how much they affect your life and your experience.

Physical things can affect you in the moment, being that they are in front of your face and that you can touch them. Emotional things can affect you in more moments then physical things, because it is how you act, and you are going to pay more attention to yourself then others. I hate to say that, being that I am pretty much saying we are all greedy and selfish, but humans tend to act just like that. Spiritual things, specifically beliefs, affect you the most as they are always present in your life. This is because physical things may or may not be there, emotional feeling may or may not be present because you may not have that emotion, but spiritual things are always present, being that they will always be present in any situation as they affect your decisions.

These 3 things that make up life are represented well in the book as well.

For instance, Okonkwo's tribe bases peoples physical worth on how much a person owns, shown when the people of the village believe that Okonkwo is clearly cut out for great things and describing him with, "He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife" (Achebe 8). Notice how he is not necessarily known for being kind or wise, but for how successful he is in how much he owns. Later, this is further increased in understanding when Okonkwo accidentally shoots the young boy, saying that, "In these seven years he would have climbed to the utmost heights. And so he regretted every day of his exile" (Achebe 162). This shows how focused people, including Okonkwo, are on physical worth.

The tribe is also focused on peoples attitudes, shown well on page 4 when Okonkwo is characterized as having "...a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fists" (Achebe 4). The book also states that the tribe characterizes people by there personal gods and chi, but that can be debatable as it could be in the emotional or spiritual dimension.

Comparing both the physical and emotional things in this book to the spiritual side of this book, I immediately make the connection of how the entire climax of this book is based on events which are further based on spiritual beliefs. This is shown through the big scene where Okonkwo decapitates one of the missionary's (Who I believed to be his son, Nwoye), which we are led to believe is done through Okonkwo's shear hatred for the Christians and what they stand for. He beheaded him completely, without any second thoughts, "Okonkwo's machete descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body" (Achebe 204). My theory is that this messenger was his first son, Nwoye. But even if it wasn't/hadn't been Nwoye, his son who had left his family and father for a different religion, Okonkwo was still described as "trembling with hate" and "unable to mutter a word" for this was how much he despised the missionaries and what he described as their stupid and insane beliefs.

As I have argued, I believe that life itself can be split into 3 things, being physical, emotional, and spiritual in creation or description. These 3 things not only make up life, but they are also the forces of this book since this book is a story with life being in it and being intertwined throughout it.

After Blog Thought
Remember how Okonkwo hangs himself at the end (Crappy ending if you ask me)? Well, I was looking for a quote in the book when I came across a part where he talked to Obierika. Okonkwo told Obierika that he could not thank him enough, and the way Okonkwo could have thanked him kept rising drastically until it came to where Okonkwo could thank him by killing himself. Okonkwo then said, "forgive me", and they proceeded to drop the subject.

At the end of the book, Obierika is the one who explains to the Commissioner about how it is illegal in their culture to touch the body of one of their tribe who has killed themselves. And is it just me, or is Obierika really salty towards the Commissioner and his men? But that is another blog or another day.

Where I'm From (Inspired by George Ella Lyon)

I am from staplers,
from folder and dust.
I am from the yellow, red tiled walls.
(Hummingbird tweets,
buzzes of bees.)
I am from the tomatoes,
the apple tree
whose long gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.

I'm from tree decorating and confidence
from Moon and Barton.
I'm from eating continuously and no doctor visits,
and from watching netflix late into the night.

I'm from truth and stories
and something beautiful.
I'm from Christmas Eve at the cousins.
I'm from Mankato and Germany,
grilled cheese and crepes.
From my brothers scar,
he got from my shovel.
Sorted in order
in the basement,
in the corner,
in the box,
and in the folder.

I am who I am,
and nothing can
change that.

Inspired by "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon

Who Can Stop Unjust Claudius? Just Hamlet, No Problemo

CONTAIN SPOILERS ABOUT THE REPUBLIC AND HAMLET

So this past week has been quite hectic with reading The Republic and Hamlet at the same time, but out of nowhere, I made a connection that I now can't get out of my head.

Hamlet is The Republic.
The Republic is Hamlet.

So during the time that Shakespeare made Hamlet, The Republic was a common text read by scholars, poets, and all other sorts of people. With this text being read by many, I believe that Shakespeare might have actually based Hamlet off The Republic. This theory could actually be true, being that they contain very similar elements, except one talks about those elements (The Republic) and the other is "living" them (Hamlet).

Doctor Fate 

This blog would be solely about this topic, but then fate (My English teacher and 12 sided die) intervened and gave me a theme to blog about. To be fair, I'm not that towards the whole "fate" thing, unless you count Doctor Fate who is my favorite DC superhero. Who has this whole helmet thing, where anyone who puts on the helmet becomes Doctor Fate... sorry, my inner DC fanboy showed itself for a second there.

So being assigned,  "How do people deal with conflicting elements within their personalities?",  I decided to defy fate and blend my theme and my idea together.

The Republic talks about what makes a Just man "just" and what makes a unjust man "unjust", and then about the difference between each, and also the benefits of each. So basically, lets just keep it at 2 things.

1. How the just and unjust are seen as by others.
2. How the just and unjust feel emotion wise and how they deal with said emotions.

And please DON'T include the perfectly just and the perfectly unjust, that is an entirely different blog post.

So as we saw character after character die throughout Hamlet, 3 characters stuck out to me, each with a different way to display or convey their emotions. These three characters we're Hamlet, Claudius, and Gertrude. I wish I could talk about people that might not be considered main characters in the entire play, but these three appeared to me to show what I was looking for.


Hamlet was the character who felt almost forced as the main character, but this ties in with how he is the "just" one in this play. Throughout this plays entirety, we saw him kill person after person until he finally died himself. And with the sword that caused his death, he killed 2 people with it before his demise. That, in itself, is pretty awesome and probably one of the only things I'll give him credit for doing. But seriously, Hamlet really bugged me throughout the play, but that adds to the fact that he is Just. In The Republic, it is said that a just man is seen as unjust, while the unjust are seen as just.

Throughout the play, Hamlet repeatedly had times where he could have killed Claudius, but chose not to because Claudius was "doing good" at the time. For instance when Hamlet entered to Claudius praying for forgiveness, he says, "Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged" (3.3. 74-76). If Hamlet had killed Claudius in this/other moments, Claudius would have died being just, which would have covered up the bad things he had done and allowed him to live throughout history as a matyr. This would have caused everyone to have pitied him, felt sorrow for him, and caused people to fight in his death. All of which he didn't deserve at all.

Honestly, I would have been happy if Hamlet had killed Claudius then and there, but alas, Shakespeare had to have dramatic ending and such. But back to how Hamlet handled his inner emotions/elements. Reading through the translated side, Hamlet pulls out his sword to kill Claudius, but then sheathes it because he decides to quell his emotions for another/better time. This is a prime example of how Hamlet repeatedly has trouble controlling his emotions, because he is literally living them, until towards the end of the book where his good side and bad side seem to agree on one thing. Killing Claudius.


Claudius, unlike Hamlet, is almost set on being bad until midway through the book where he prays and starts to feel guilt about certain things. But, I will say that not once does Claudius admit his emotions to others out of guilt, but out of death. So he never really did let his emotions show, which fits how everyone in the entire book sees him as a good man up until after death, which isn't his fault because he was dead and couldn't really do anything about it.

He even did this whole speech crap about how his brother was so great and mighty, and that he was so sad about his death, he states with 'sadness', "Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death the memory be green, and that it us befitted to bear our hearts in grief..." (1.2. 1-3). To me, you can sum this up as "Boohoo! My brothers dead and stuff. Now I'm king and his wife and throne are mine." I know that that is pretty dry with no emotion, but that's on purpose to represent what Claudius did with his emotions. He silenced them. He quenched them. He ignored them.

No Hablo Emotions.

He just poisoned his brother, married his wife, and stole his kingdom that he seemed to be doing a pretty good job running. If I was Claudius, I probably would have cracked at the first time I sat on the throne. He just killed someone for crying out loud! That person being his brother for crying outloud! And he is able to just ignore that?! To me, he has no soul! Maybe he is Voldemort in disguise or something...

Claudius is a prime example of how people are able to take their emotions, and not even remotely acknowledge them. Being that Hamlet "lived" his emotions, and Claudius ignored his, it makes sense that the two are polar opposites. Good and bad. Just and unjust.

Gertrude is a very lame character to me. She is portrayed as a clueless mom, according to pretty much everyone in the books. And if my mom is like other moms, they are sharp as tacks and have eyes in the back of their heads. Literally.

Anyways, Gertrude is kind of an oddball to me, being that she is such a bad character who never seems to grasp what is going on around her. So I'm going to make a new term for her. She is the clueless just. This being that she is "just", but only in her own terms since she is so clueless as to what good and bad are that whatever is in front of her at that moment tends to be the thing she will believe or put trust in. 

For instance, Gertrude is being talked to by Hamlet about how Claudius isn't as good as everyone thinks he is. Telling her, "Oh, throw away the worser part of it, and live the purer with the other half" (3.4. 159-160). After reading this quote, remember that crap has been hitting the fan for the past couple of acts and something fishy is going on. Gertrude has alluded to knowing some stuff about this, but has ignored it up til now. Then her supposedly crazy son comes in and kills someone, claiming that she is a horrible person, and that his father is now a ghost who sent him on a trip for revenge. I would definitely be confused about this just like her, but unlike her is if/what I would do about it.

If she isn't able to see that somethings going on here, she is blind. Her son has just killed Polonius, who seemed to be conspiring with her and Claudius. And Hamlet stated something about how he had stabbed the wrong person. Hmm, wonder who the other person could be in your evil trust triangle? Oh wait, it's not evil to her because she is to blind to see the good and the bad in people.

Walking out of the situation, she is in shock. Even with how blind she is, she has had her mind changed about something, until Claudius steps in. Your son just has this whole speech about how evil he is, and you still just want to talk? Leave it to Gertrude to be so oblivious to this entire thing, that she allows Claudius to convince her that Hamlet is actually crazy, and that the entire speech with all the reasons why Claudius is evil is false in every way. Great job Gertrude.

And then I love how the next day she be sitting on her chair watching Hamlet and Laertes fence it out, as if nothing happened. Prime example of clueless-ness right there

Roping Gertrude into the whole emotions/inner personality thing, this one was a little tougher to make a definitive decision on how she handles her emotions. Obviously she has emotions, they exist, but it seems that they aren't there for long. She has a short attention span. She forgets her emotions soon after they've shown up. Basically, her emotions are just there for show, she's a lady who cares about her social appearance. Other then for keeping up her looks, her emotions don't matter unless they are right in her face.


Conclusion
I thoroughly enjoyed Hamlet, it is a cool play, with some mystery and suspense. (Although, I totally called the part where Claudius was evil and stuff) Overall, I'm happy with how this blog turned out, even though it was really time consuming. I feel that I summed the entire thing up pretty well, including where I was able to mix what I wanted to write about and "what my fate was".

Sources:
Doctor Fate Picture: http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/061/b/5/doctor_fate_young_justice_by_fateroid12-d78n8lo.jpg
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/

Quantum Arm

She was told at a young age,
No future for you exists in modeling'.
With that Quantum Prosthetic Limb,
You're seen as a disability.

20 years go by,
And Nordstrom came along.
They told her "Hey you got
talent, don't care about the arm."

So now along with other models,
she struts down the runway.
Because after all,
1-5 people have a disability.

Link To Original Article:
http://mashable.com/2015/09/01/bionic-arm-modeling/#l7V.ptsJEikW

Justice Is In The Eye of The Beholder

In this time, pop culture is at the highest of highs. With the media affecting anyone with any type of device, people don't question what they are told. There are those of you who may not question what shows up on your screen, whether it be a phone or computer, or that one new tablet you may have gotten for your birthday. Because it's there, it exists, and up til now there was no reason to question it. But this blog is a reason to question everything. And I mean everything. 

The new CNN video for the day.
Question it.
The latest celebrity post.
Question it.
The picture of a cute cat on your desktop.
Question it...

Okay maybe not that, but the whole point is that one thing is for certain, one word.
It starts with J and ends with E.
And no its not Batman, it's Justice. Although they pretty much are the same thing, except one is a Bat and the other is a clothing store.

"Then Justice is the art which gives good to friends and evil to enemies."
          Pg 6, Plato - The Republic

This quote makes it sound like Justice a hundred percent correct at all times. Its not.

Just yesterday, Justice took away my second favorite character after taking away my FIRST favorite character 3 books ago. They didn't deserve it! They were one of the good guys! And sure this may be a book example, but this happens in real life as well. "Justice" is served to those who don't deserve it! Anyone starving out there, or people who are homeless, they may not have deserved any of this! But it happened, so they have to deal with it, even though there is people who in the world who might deserve to go to jail for fraud or something worse.

Justice is in the eye of the beholder, whoever that person may be. And the reason you should question media is that Justice is in the eye of the beholder. And that means in said media, whoever created it decided how justice should be portrayed, whether it be that someone wasn't served justice or if someone shouldn't have had so much of it.

And this is how the media is able to control the populace, most people aren't going to even read this blog. But for those of you who do, you need to learn to make your own decisions, because at the end of the day people who ask questions get answers.

And since this isn't school and there isn't necessarily right or wrong answers, you are always right.

Non-Fiction Project, Achievement Earned!

Achievement Earned: Quest 8 Finisher/ Non-fiction Smasher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y9laTHhhxk

Looking back at this project, I seriously enjoyed it. I am usually not one for larger projects, but this was completely worth it. For once I didn't procrastinate, but instead got it done early and presented a week early. All thing considered, it was pretty sweet being done early, because then I was able to focus on geography and science homework.

I made this with windows movie maker, and it took 7 hours to finally slap all of the audio, pictures and video together. This is not including all of the work finding pictures, citing sources, and learning about my topic. Overall, it was worth every second.

One of the things that I left out of my project was an experiment that I had planned to do, but if it would have been included, would have pushed the project a little past 20 minutes. I was going to test whether people have a tougher time with a possible prize, and if they are more anxious or nervous because of the thought of not reaching it. I would have offered people a prize for finishing a Battle Block Theater level in a certain time. As the time needed to get the prize came closer, the idea would have been that they would have been more nervous then people without the prize.

As far as what my project turned out to be, I think it could have been much much more in terms of quality. Going back to Ira Glass, he said that it takes years for your work to live up to our own tastes, and that most people quit along the way. So looking at this, it turned out pretty good for an English project, even though I had a plan of what I wanted and was unable to reach the final steps. In 4 years, I'm sure that my work will suit my tastes, and that I will be happy with everything I make. But right now I am content with the project, not absolutely happy, but content.

Some things that I felt needed improvement was the audio quality, pictures matching what I am saying, and just the over all feel of the project. I guess by the over all feel, I mean that the project felt like it was made by an 8th grader, while I had wanted it to feel like it was made by a pro-video editor who has years of experience. So I guess that in a few years, I might be just that.

To Kill A Mockingbird: Reader's Notebook #2/3

You remember back in my last reader's notebook, when I said

"...because I am actually enjoying it..." ~ Carter, May 10th 2015

Yes? Well guess what, now that I have read the rest of the book, I retract my previous quote and replace it with this one.

"This book sucks." ~ Carter, May 30th 2015, #getwrektTKAM

That's right, I've actually changed my mind about something. Me, Carter, the most stubborn person that I know actually changed his perspective on something. Surprising, but here's 3 reasons why I really changed my mind on how stupid this book is.

1. Jem
2. Scout
3. Atticus

These 3 characters have such a screwed up family that I am still processing what each one was thinking throughout the story. So here is my explanation of frustration towards each character.

Jem
To be fair, Jem is a horrible character. Every chapter, he changes his mind on everything, from what kinds of people there are and whether certain people are evil or not. I can not stand characters like this, as they seem to always ruin whatever I think is gonna happen next, and I hate being wrong! Like when he says on page 304, "That's what I thought, too." Seriously stop changing your mind already! Now, before anyone complains that Jem has a soul (Which I don't think he does), I do believe that he is a necessary character. Now when I say necessary, this does not mean that I have to like them even a little, even though they are needed in the story.

Scout
Its not that I don't like Scout, but it is the stuff people expect of her. Everyone treats her as dumb, or that she doesn't understand things, or even that she is to young to see certain things. And Harper Lee uses Scout as a way to explain events in the story, allowing other characters to verbally explain events and concepts, or to show that the current event should be represented as so bad that young people should look away. This is just lazy, for instance on page 231 Reverend Sykes tells Jem, "you better take Miss Jean Louise home. Mr. Jem, you hear me?" This tells us to buckle down and pay attention, as the next part of the story includes parts that may be disturbing to certain underage readers. As much respect as I have for authors who give warnings, I like books that give plot twists or events with no warning, making it so you seriously need to take an hour after reading and go cry in a corner because your favorite character died.

(By the way, this happens to me a lot, and I have no clue why I enjoy the books or respect the authors for tearing away a fictional character which I loved for maybe 24 hours before they died.)

Atticus
Like father, like son. I can't stand his name for one thing, and he seriously needs to simplify everything he does. I had to read page 352-370 three times to fully understand what just happened. And really this is a quote, but it would take up a ton of pages so I won't put it on here, but the whole entire argument between Atticus and Mr. Tate was all over the place and hard to follow along with. And even at the end of the book, I still don't even really get what Atticus seriously did to help progress the book much. Not to mention he's a terrible father.

Conclusion
Finishing this book, I seriously am confused at what happened. I am pretty sure that I missed some huge conclusion reference in the last couple of pages, as I was distracted at being mad that BOO RADLEY, the character who was built up to be all that, shows up for only about 10 pages and does almost nothing. I don't even get what he represents towards the end of the book, if it be anything.

So to be fair, I actually thought that this book was called "How To Kill A Mockingbird" before we started reading it. And guess what this book is about, that killing mockingbirds is bad! So in the end, remember that when in Rome... wait sorry, Julius Caesar was last month. Basically, when reading TKAM, realize that you will be frustrated with everything that happens. But look on the bright side, now you know that Alabama isn't a very good setting for a book.

To Kill A Mockingbird: Reader's Notebook #1

To be fair, I seriously thought this book was going be boring. In 4th or 5th grade (I can't remember which) we read a book that took place in the times of war when America was young. I can't remember the title, but in short, it sucked. It had a horrible plot that jumped around a ton, following many years of a boys life who loved fossils. In the end, he died to a lightning strike because of dinosaur bones, when he had tried to bring some home from a field during a lightning storm.

This taught me three things.
   1. Don't trust books that take place during young America.
   2. Books that have a hundred pages or so that look short are lying to your face. If you aren't                    interested in them, then it feels like 1000 pages.
   3. Boys back before I was born were idiots.

So when I saw "To Kill A Mockingbird", I went through a mental checklist.

"Well, it looks to be a little more then 100 pages."
*Turns to back of book and reads description*
"Well it takes place in young America."
*Flips through first couple of pages*
"And it has quite a few young boys... I'm no English professor, but I think these may be the exact same thing!"
~Carters thoughts, Day 5346, Time 9:05 am

So these were the thought running through my head on Day 5346 of my life. But then, just like Chuck Yaegar when he broke the sound barrier, this book broke the set of rules that had been in my head since the 4th or 5th grade. For once, I am actually enjoying something that used to be poison to me. Almost like Jem on page 80-81, when "Less then 2 weeks later we found a whole package of chewing gum, which we enjoyed, the fact that everything on the Radley Place was poison having slipped Jems memory."

And I guess I owe that to page 29, where Scout expresses her frustration about her teacher, "Saved by the bell, Miss Caroline watched the class filter out for lunch. As I was the last to leave, I saw her sink down into her chair and bury her head in her arms. Had her conduct been more friendly to me, I would have felt sorry for her." I relate to this because I have had trouble with a handful of teachers when it comes to respect for each other.

So after reading page 29, I started to read more. I feel bad for judging this book by its cover, because I am actually enjoying it, and to be fair I do think it deserves its Pulitzer Prize. When Scout says "If the remainder of the school year was fraught with drama as the first day, perhaps it would be mildly entertaining, but the prospect of spending nine months refraining from reading and writing made me think of running away." on page 37, I couldn't help but think that if I had skipped 4th or 5th grade, then I wouldn't have judged this book as bad, just like if she had skipped first grade then she wouldn't have had to learn how to read and write all over again.

Julius Caesar 2.0 (Or Would it be 0.5 since Shakespeare is older?)

So here's my last blog in Shakespeare. If you would actually want to be able to understand my last blog, please read it at the last post. This is more of an ode to Shakespeare than anything.

"Looking back at Julius Caesar (Which we has't been reading and performing for the past 3 weeks) its surprising to see that I actually hath seemed to enjoy t. lest I not one for the theater, or coequal for poetry, but this wast actually excit'ment to participate in. So ere I start this blog, big shout out to mine English teacher for making me tryeth something new... and actually enjoying t.

Working mine way through this playeth, I can confidently sayeth that t hadst more thrilling suspense then most new literary content nowadays, so valorous job Julius Caesar for making something to last this long. I eke can confidently sayeth that this story hath more loose ends and speculation than the TV showeth "Lost". if 't be true thou has't readeth Julius Caesar, then thee knoweth that Portia wast "said" to has't hath killed herself, and that Brutus and Cassius may has't been ga... well far be it from my heart, the thought thereof. thee receiveth the point, this story is quaint.

Now what else is plentiful in this story is the amount of false justifications that the characters sayeth.
 For instance...

"And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg—

Which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous—

And kill him in the shell" (2.1 32-35).

This is a most wondrous example, because Brutus useth this justification to killeth Caesar. According to Brutus, that gent is killing Caesar to preserve Caesar's now valorous image so that that gent wilt at each moment beest known as valorous. This is because if 't be true Caesar would has't gotten the crown, that gent would has't becometh a tyrant. This in itself may beest true, but hadst Caesar hath lived on, that gent may has't been the best vaward in all of Rome. For all we knoweth, if 't be true Caesar hadst hath lived on, that gent may has't turned into Darth Vader. We just don't has't enough proof to bethink either, and nor didst Brutus.

This is just one of many of the so-called "faults" in Julius Caesar, but to me those gents maketh t better. To me, those gents holp me to stayeth interested in the playeth. Since these situations cameth up oft, every time one occurred, I would keepeth reading to see each characters next "dumb" moment. And again, these like a stone moments wast quaint oft as half of the characters justified their own death because of the death of a cousin.

So in the end, I am very joyous to has't hath tried reading Shakespeare, and that this attempt turned out to beest fruitful. Although ere I finish, alloweth me point out that at least half the characters hath kicked the bucket, but almost no sword fighting occurred throughout the entirety of the playeth. So applause to Shakespeare for being able to killeth people without actually killing those folk. And to end this blog, I quote Julius Caesar, not from the playeth but from real life.

'Veni, Vidi, Vici.'"

Shakespeare Translator: http://www.shmoop.com/shakespeare-translator/

Julius Caesar

Looking back at Julius Caesar (Which we have been reading and performing for the past 3 weeks) its surprising to see that I actually seemed to enjoy it. I'm not one for the theater, or even for poetry, but this was actually fun to participate in. So before I start this blog, big shout out to my English teacher for making me try something new... and actually enjoying it.

Working my way through this play, I can confidently say that it had more thrilling suspense then most new literary content nowadays, so good job Julius Caesar for making something to last this long. I also can confidently say that this story has more loose ends and speculation than the TV show "Lost". If you have read Julius Caesar, then you know that Portia was "said" to have killed herself, and that Brutus and Cassius may have been ga... well never mind. You get the point, this story is pretty much an uncleanly cut rope, which is what makes it so interesting to me.

Now what else is plentiful in this story is the amount of false justifications that the characters say.
For instance...

"And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg—

Which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous—

And kill him in the shell" (2.1 32-35).

This is a great example, because Brutus uses this justification to kill Caesar. According to Brutus, he is killing Caesar to preserve Caesar's now good image so that he will always be known as good. This is because if Caesar would have gotten the crown, he would have become a tyrant. This in itself may be true, but had Caesar lived on, he may have been the best leader in all of Rome. For all we know, if Caesar had lived on, he may have turned into Darth Vader. We just don't have enough proof to think either, and nor did Brutus.

This is just one of many of the so-called "faults" in Julius Caesar, but to me they make it better. To me, they helped me to stay interested in the play. Since these situations came up often, every time one occurred, I would keep reading to see each characters next "dumb" moment. And again, these dumb moments were pretty often as half of the characters justified their own death because of the death of a friend.

So in the end, I am very happy to have tried reading Shakespeare, and that this attempt turned out to be fruitful. Although before I finish, let me point out that at least half the characters died, but almost no sword fighting occurred throughout the entirety of the play. So applause to Shakespeare for being able to kill people without actually killing them. And to end this blog, I quote Julius Caesar, not from the play but from real life.

"Veni, Vidi, Vici."

Sources:
http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/61618812.jpg
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/juliuscaesar

Non-Fiction Project Check In : Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

I am pursuing the topic of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation. When turning this topic into a question, I need to keep in mind that I need to show what both types of motivation are, how they are used, and how they tie into video games. So a overall question like "How do extrinsic and intrinsic motivation affect people?" or "How can extrinsic and intrinsic motivation be used in gaming?" would fit the bill.

Using editing software (like windows movie maker), I will be creating a video on my topic and explaining a thing called Gamification. Gamification is the use of extrinsic or intrinsic rewards to help drive an individual or groups actions. This method can be used in businesses, schools, and families and is a very powerful use of rewards.

I plan on having this project be the kickstarter video to my youtube channel, HowDisWorks.
Link to channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb4HWc7MxiIDQp66UjlSUOg

So the final project (I'm hoping) will be professional and interesting. On HowDisWorks, I will be explaining topics from science to movies to books. So this channel will be a hobby and will hopefully become popular.

Now reading about my topic, it is very surprising how much it is actually used. Gamification is a method that is very common in today's world, and I'm excited to do more research on it as well as experiment with it. For an experiment, I would like to see how effective Gamification is in gaming and how it affects people subjected to it. It would be cool to take battle block theater and have two groups play it, while one group might have extra motivation (Like a prize or leader board), the other group might just play the game normally. After the game, both groups would answer questions on how they felt playing it and rating certain emotions or feelings they felt.

This weekend, I plan on contacting the Behemoth and some other gaming companies to see how they put extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in their games. I also plan on typing up more of my written script, as I will be making a video and the script is a key part of the whole.

Also, here is some of the sources I have found on my topic.
https://docs.google.com/a/bhmschools.org/file/d/0Bz1zbeZHBC9KanlKaHhCTUdVRU0/edit
https://docs.google.com/a/bhmschools.org/file/d/0Bz1zbeZHBC9KX3JXZzhWeExmajg/edit

Claim, Evidence, Warrant; Sold Through Steam!

Brief Introduction

Steam. It is created by water and heat. But these days, those of you who are nerds in your basement might have a completely different type of Steam in your head. Steam, as in the gaming company. These days, Steam has continued to gain growth in today's world. The company is privately owned, and its financial information is private. However, in a recent video released on February 11th, 2014, Steam released the daily earnings of community bought items in video games such as Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2. The amount that was made the first week of January, 2014 is 1.2 million dollars. Multiplying that by 52 weeks is equal to $64,400,000 made in one year. And this is only from the sale of in game items, not even their main sales, a.k.a. video games!

Sold Through Steam

Steam is one of the many middle man companies that sell video games in today's economy. It has 7.6 million users at this point in time, and is becoming increasingly popular. More games these days should be sold through Steam because the games will be easily accessible.

Those of you who are one of the many millions of Steam users have experienced the companies brilliance in that it is so easily accessible. With the access to Steam being mainly through computers and now phones, the accessibility of Steam is one of the many things that makes Steam brilliant. Steam provides many easily accessible options that helps gamers to connect with each other and do what they love. In order to not only buy and play games while being able to chat and compare statistics with friends while doing so, all you need is a computer and a Steam account. 

But not only are the players helped by Steam, but the developers of games are. Steam is the chance for game developers to hit the big time. With every new game that is just starting to sell through Steam being advertised through the main screen, a chance for new and upcoming games to be bought by the millions of Steam users is created. 

But what about old games? What about games that were originally sold on console? What about games that have already been played a billion times over and have been recorded for YouTube? *Cough Cough* Minecraft *Cough Cough*  Well the best part about all of these questions is that Steam is able combat all of these bad things. Let me introduce you to a thing called Steam Sales! As a gamer myself, I no longer look forward to holidays being a time for friends and family, but instead look forward to the huge sales on tons of games. Besides, you have time for friends and family always, but Steam sales only happen every once in while. On holidays such as; Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Halloween, Steam takes a ton of the best games from that time and sells them at rates of 5-90% off! 

You see that sixty dollar game you've been wanting? Well instead of putting on your footy pajamas and driving a couple of miles to the nearest game stop for horrible service and wasting money on gas, you can instead buy it from the comfort of your own chair for half the price! And yes, the satisfaction of having a hard copy of the game may be rewarding, and yes the anticipation of driving home waiting to play the game you have already watched YouTube videos of and read cheat guides for may be immensely satisfying. Not only does Steam help to cut the space needed to store your video games to a small box connected to the cloud, but it also gives you the worlds most satisfying feeling of looking at the list of games that you spent hours playing, and your favorite companies spent hours making.

"So why does all of this matter?" you say, "Video games are dumb anyway!" (Tee hee that rhymed)

The video game market is the largest entertainment variable in today's entertainment industry, topping DVD sales, cinema sales, and music sales in today's world. But not only do they top all three individually, but they top all three combined.

Gaming is becoming popular across the world. So when you say that video game sales don't matter, you are wrong in your thinking. With releases of widely anticipated video games like Halo or Call of Duty, the economy receives a huge boost in profit due to the millions of gamers all buying that video game on the same release date. All I'm asking is for these games to be sold through one easily accessible source. That is why Steam matters, that is why you have read this blog, because I have peaked your interest. Steam matters in not only today's economy, but in today's culture. Since video games are becoming more important, they need to be; easily accessible, reliable, and fitted to the public. Steam provides all that and more.

Oh... and did I mention that Steam is working on perfecting its own video game console? But that's a topic for another blog.

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHC-uGDbu7s
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/35221584729653199/
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2009/sep/27/videogames-hollywood

Fallacy Blog (Magic With Words)

Fallacy video - Post Hoc
Fallacy Presentation - Dogmatism

Fallacies are magic. All you have to do to use them to your advantage is know what they are, but all you have to do to counteract them is to know what they are. I came into this English unit thinking what is a fallacy, much less how to use them or counteract them. But now I'm expert in logical fallacies.

"Heavy hate magic!" ~ Heavy, Team Fortress 2

A fallacy is a flaw in logical reasoning, and can be very powerful if used correctly. If used in a way that is obvious or wrong, they can backfire and allow the opposing argument/side to point out a fault in your argument. Some major fallacies include cherry picking, dogmatism, and post hoc fallacy.

Cherry Picking- Looking at chart of data and selecting data that helps your side of an argument and ignoring the rest.

Dogmatism- Refusing to accept or listen to the opposing sides argument.

Post Hoc- If event A happened before event B, this means A caused B. This may not be true.

Knowing what these fallacies are can help you argue better by not using them and strengthening your argument while disproving or discrediting an opposing argument. These fallacies are used everywhere. Three major places where you can find them are in ads, political debates, and at school.

One of the more interesting things about fallacies is why they are used. If you see that an argument/side has used a fallacy, you can then use this to think at the core of their argument. For instance, if an argument uses a fallacy, you can conclude a few or all of the following.

1. Their argument is faulty and lacks required evidence or backing to it.

2. The person/s arguing this claim are worried that their argument does not have enough backing to it. (They are afraid of opposing side, this can be used to your advantage.)

3. This person does not know what a fallacy.

All three of these are reasons to use fallacies, and all three are also ways you can counteract them. Fallacies are very risky, if used in a subtle way, you may be able to get away with it. But if the opposing side is looking for the use of fallacies like you should now be doing, your entire argument can collapse on you.

Bond, James Bond: Satire

In 2016, a new James Bond movie is supposed to come out. Some information was leaked about it yesterday, so I'm really excited for the new movie! The movie is supposed to start out with James walking out onto the screen, then he pulls out a gun and shoots the viewer! Amazing! This is very original and makes the viewer feel like they're actually in the movie. The screen goes black, and then an epic chase scene ensues, with James chasing the bad guy. Explosions, helicopters, and awesome action stunts go on for the first five minutes. Each stunt making you wonder how the heck James has been able to do this for 62 years.

Ending with the bad guy getting away, a music video involving some song by a female singer made specifically for the movie starts in the background over a video that probably took more time to make then the rest of the entire movie. Fading into the background, a shot of James Bond in some wickedly awesome car comes onto the screen. Looking like a boss, he pulls up to the "secret" M16 base, which every villain in the entire series of movies seems to know about and take advantage of. Walking into the building, this is about the time that you pull out your phone and play candy crush as you wait for something exciting to happen.

Thirty minutes later, Bond has been shipped off to some country that stereo typically is known for either nukes, enemy agents, and people that Bond has supposedly killed before but didn't die. Having gotten his mission, Bond usually makes his way to enemy base #1, killing all of the henchmen and causing the building to explode as he goes after the villain who usually ends up being number two in command. Having had a tough day, Bond goes to bed with a women who he usually finds conveniently on the streets, and who usually ends up to be an enemy agent.

Secretly leaving her, Bond makes his way back to headquarters, getting some freaking awesome gear from Q, his weapons/inventions specialist. Usually this includes an exploding pen, exploding car, and exploding wristwatch. Setting out, Bond goes after the villain who was number two in command, then finds out about the villains boss who is set on some sort of world domination. Sneaking up on the villains, he is betrayed by the first girl, in which he is captured. Being lazy, the villains send him on some stupid death trap with no way of watching Bond, allowing him to escape unharmed while they think he is dead.

Fleeing, Bond usually hooks up with the second girl in the movie, who you conveniently did not see because you were playing candy crush. Luckily for you, this actress is a horrible actor, and soon you are happy that you missed the first thirty minutes with her in it. With the new girl in tow, Bond goes after the villains who usually are putting their evil plan into action. Gaining access to their secret hideout, Bond kills the second in command with in the first thirty seconds. Going further into the secret hideout, Bond goes on to kill the main villain, this time taking a good ten minutes to do something he has done over a thousand times. Meanwhile, the two lead actresses fight. And since one is a bad guy and the other is a horrible actress, you usually are happy if either one is killed.


With all of the bad guys dead, Bond and bad actress destroy or recapture the death weapon, nuke, stolen goods, etc. With nothing left to do but report back to headquarters, the movie ends with Bond wrapping up any loose ends or going to bed with the bad actress.

In conclusion, this is going to be the most original Bond movie ever! It will top all other movies in the series and create a new era of James Bond!