Reader Response Journal "Civil Disobedience" Edition, w/ Digression About New Blog Setup

Hey everyone, exciting new development in "The Blog" history:

NEW TEMPLATE AND NEW EVERYTHING!!!!

Now, I know, I know, but I'm getting to the post in just a sec. Now, THE BLOG comes equipped with an RSS feed on it. If you somehow are totally enthralled by my blog, you can add it to your bookmarks bar and thus get new updates for the blog every Thursday, and when school ends, possibly every day. Now,it also has a few new addons, like the most popular post addon, the "fish" addon (feed the fishies) etc. Don't get carried away staring at the ...SHINY... new template though, because the real meat and potatoes of THE BLOG are the posts... I think...

Now, on to the real portion of the blog:

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Now, this essay (at first) kind of seemed like the Tea Partiers would be all over it like flies to honey. It's got so many "anti-government" statements in it that it seems like it would fit their agenda perfectly. Now, reflecting on it, it would seem like it would actually hurt their agenda. You see, they talk about the Constitution with reverence, so this essay, with its anarchist tone, would only appeal to a small subset.

Now, do I agree with it? No. I know he was doing it to stop another slave state from entering the U.S, but he did the wrong thing. I'm not saying that the government back then was the most morally righteous, and that Thoreau was a horrible demon, but what you need is a huge, coordinated effort, not a small-scale "one person not paying their taxes" thing. That helps no-one, and injures the government, which then has less money to provide services. Also, you go to jail. What he needed was a large-scale protest, one that would shake people to their senses. I don't really know what a good alternative is, so I'm opening it up to a reader discussion. Win, and you get 100 points.

--Noah

P.S.
   Word of the week:

Grangerize:

1.To add to the visual content of a book by inserting images not included in the original volume, often by mutilating other books.

2.To mutilate books in order to get illustrative material for such a purpose.

 

King... still king?

So, Martin Luther King Jr...

Inspirational, greatest civil rights leader of all time, etc. But.. the million dollar question...

*drumroll*
Is he still relevant?

I think yes. He provides a great, homegrown example of what one man  can do with a vision and some good speechwriting. He's an example for kids everywhere. Heck, he gives us a day off from school! Just for that, he should be relevant today.

Also, there are still racists and bigots.People that want to destroy the foundations of equality that this country is built upon (okay, not exactly true, but still). I mean, no offense to Gandhi, but we need a homegrown idol of equality, so to speak. Especially today, with these crazy people going around listening to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh's racist rhetoric, and then going around shooting people (yes, the Tucson shooting was not a race-related shooting, but still, if we leave things like this, it'll happen eventually). We need a positive icon that people risk serious damage to their self-image by attacking.

We need MLK.

At least, that's my humble opinion.
By the way, why is the word monosyllabic more than one syllable?

Also, yes, I know, this post is a little short, but don't worry, i'll have the next post up to scratch...

--Noah

P.S: Word of the week:
Logorrhea
      

–noun

1. pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech.

2. incessant or compulsive talkativeness; wearisome volubility.

Reader (Journal? Response? Whatever) to "Children of the Sea"

Hello all,

Today's post is ... well... not so good a topic, let's say. The "Trick of Writing" one would have been better, but we have to do the reader response journal.

However, I do have one thing that's interesting that i noticed while reading Children of the Sea. If you notice, the guy on the boat says "Now they'll never mistake us for Cubans". From that comment, I thought I could pinpoint the precise time, however, I needed to do some research. So, where did I go?]

 THE 1NT3RW3BZ!!!!
(that's "interwebs", for those of you who don't speak 1337(leet)speak.)

So the first place I went? The place EVERYONE goes to check stuff out: Wikipedia. Because I have a short attention span, however, I ended up clicking on random links for a while, until I finally remembered what I was doing. So, let me give you the background: Basically, at various points in Cuban history, people have left in order to escape the economic conditions blah blah blah, and they usually came across in boats. Sometimes, the U.S. government was complicit in these acts, for example the Pedro Pan incident. The U.S. government thought it could destablize Cuba by taking the brightest Cuban kids and essentially kidnapping them. They took them to the U.S. with the promise that they would bring the families later. For most, that never happened. Anyways, I thought that the story could be taking place during the mass exodus that took place in 1980.

So, naturally, I checked the history of Haiti.

Bingo.

The year 1980 took place during the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier, or "Baby Doc", son of the previous tyrant, "Papa Doc" Duvalier. In 1980, he married Michéle Bennet, and kicked his father's widow out of the country. However, I ended up not being able to find any record of violence on a scale that the book was talking about, so I went to the next chapter in Haitian history: 1996-1991, the transition government. The military took over and committed terrible atrocities, like the killing of thousands of voters across the country. It was probably then. Then again, it could have been any time in Haiti's recent history. *sigh* Oh well.


Anyways, if you somehow made it this far, congratulations!
You're not lazy like some people who might not even have read the whole thing *cough* *cough*

This is Noah, signing off.

P.S. The word of the week is "Stochasticity". Don't believe it's a word?

stochasticity

noun

the quality of lacking any predictable order or plan [syn: randomness]

You might say my choice of this word was very "Stochastic"
although it really isn't, I came across it listening to RadioLab on my iPhone.

Music Review

Okay, everyone:

Today I want to tell you about a band that I heard about quite recently, called "Los Ilegales"(which translates to "The Illegals") All of their music is really catchy, and even if you don't understand Spanish, fail at Spanish, or are a native speaker, you'll enjoy the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PQATa34TrY

Pay no attention to the video, it's kind of stupid.

The beat is nice, and it's kind of reggaeton-ish, especially with the car and the gas pumps, which is probably a reference to "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee. Nice beat, nice music, and fun to listen to.

Anyways, life is good now. Holidays are here, and the world is somehow a better place now that school is out.

Also, funny new Onion headline (satirical newspaper) "States Quietly Raise Speed Limits Near Failing Schools"

That's all for now,
-- Noah

Jay & Nick

Hey everyone,

Well, I'm feeling slightly less festive today, so NO new art.
However, I got my grubby mitts on a copy of Nerdaclysm, so that's good.
Now let's return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Now, Gatsby and Nick have a lot in common. For one thing, they're both "new money" types, trying to fit into the "old money" society. Also, Gatsby also has Nick's politician-like charm, as evidenced in the party scene, where Gatsby smiles and Nick instantly thinks better of him. I actually think that Gatsby reminds Nick of the qualities of himself that he hates, which is why he says he dislikes him at the beginning of the book.

I also think that, at first, their relationship is false, and that Gatsby's using him to get to Daisy. But later on, I think that they become more like friends.

Nick and Gatsby, however, have some differences. #1, we've already seen that Gatsby has some shady connections, as evidenced by the guy that rigged the World Series in 1919. Also, Gatsby lies about his past, mainly the whole "San Francisco is in the Midwest" thing. Honestly, I can think of various people that would be ROFLing because of that statement. So, he definitely has something he wants to hide. Also, I'm going to use some logic here, and say that he's a bootlegger. Why? because everyone at his party has huge amounts of alcohol. During Prohibition.

Just food for thought.

--Noah

Winter Poem, With Excursus About The Holidays, Featuring Ranting Action One Would Normally Expect From Sydney

In case you don't know what it means, I have the definition of "Excursus" here:

ex·cur·sus

  [ek-skur-suhs]

–noun, plural -sus·es, -sus.

1.

a detailed discussion of some point in a book, esp. one added as an appendix.

2.

a digression or incidental excursion, as in a narrative.

So I'm basically using it right.

Now, we can get on with the rant-like digression, and then the winter poem. 

Don't you just love the holidays? There's the freezing cold snow, the people pointing out said snow and exclaiming "LOOK!! Global warming is a lie! It's cold outside!!". AND, they don't listen to you when you tell them atmospheric carbon is at 369 ppm or so, which is about 100 ppm higher than it was post-industrial revolution, AND that it's the hottest decade on record, AND that according to a recently created mathematical model, 75% of the freak weather systems we've had over the past several years come from carbon WE'VE put into the air. 

Oh, and of course there's the pretty general thing about family and friends and chestnuts and magical little robot elves blah blah blah etc. Oh, but don't think I'm shallow and only care about the presents. Nope, I enjoy the generic holiday activities too, like watching Fringe and Battlestar Galactica with my family and my new kitten with a mug of hot cider, singing Christmas carols as people get shot of blown to bits on TV. 

But one of the things I'm REALLY looking forward to is World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I can't wait to make my Goblins/Worgen and adventure in Uldum, Vashj'ir, Deepholm, Mount Hyjal, and the Twilight Highlands. I'm literally this ==> |--------------|-------------|--------------| close to getting to level 80 (for those of you who don't know, that is how many experience bars I need to fill up before getting level 80). It's going to be SO cool.

Finally, I'm adding new art to the blog, so that's good. I'm thinking of using something I originally made up for AP Human Geography, for the "Authentic Self" project. I'm thinking navy blue boxes interspersed with either lime green or orange, with whatever color I don't pick ending up as a tertiary color.

Without further ado, here's the Winter Poem!!!

   Winter makes its presence felt, as the snowflake falls,

   Tumbling, tumbling to the ground.

   Its facets reflect the slowly fading light of the day

   As the sun sinks below the horizon, 

A shaft of sunlight hits the flake.

The snowflake falls, as must we all,

But just for a moment, a fleeting moment, 

The ray of light catches it in its warm hands,

Caressing it in its fatal embrace.

And just for a moment, a tiny blip in time,

The flake is golden.

But, like all things, the moment will, nay, must pass

And the snowflake continues its spiral,

Falling down, down

Into the white abyss of its fellows.

Anyways, C&C are welcome. Yes it's a little bit dark, but happy Christmahanukwanzaa all the same everyone.

Happy Christmahanukwanzaa to all!

--Noah

People In My Class I'm Thankful For.

As we approach Thanksgiving, we--

Oh, wait. It is Thanksgiving.
This Thanksgiving, we sit down and think about people that we're thankful for. Also, since this blog post is about people in our class we're thankful for, I'll start the lis with thanking Gaga, for somehow helping me retain my sanity during Algebra II/Trig BC, my only class marred by the unholy presence of Barry Ng and his equally unholy shenanigans (BTW, for me to say something is unholy means it's pretty bad, because I'm an atheist). Without being able to complain about Barry to someone, I would have gone totally INSANE *maniacal laugh*. Also, Jiayin for helping me in the same class with the various assignments and groupworks. Otherwise I would have had an F in that class. Also, here's yet another person who I can complain about Barry to.

Then, there are people not in this class peiod who I want to thank:

#1. My Spanish for Native Speakers class for being so awesome :D
#2. Sydney, for restraining my nascent pyromania in Chemistry class.
#3. Mr. Neris for coming up with awesome... FIERY... experiments for our class
#4. My lunch table, for actually not wanting to fail their world studies class and listening to me

And finally, there's the ever-present not-being-thankful-feeling one gets when thinking about Barry. God, talk about a downer...
Anyways, go enjoy your turkey, everyone. I'm taking advantage of this time to powerlevel to level 80. Then I'll start raiding. Naxxramas, here I come!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

(Also, does anyone know how to cranberry-proof your electronic devices?)

--Noah

Edit: apparently that would have been a good idea. Level 78!