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Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Stage

Author's Note: I meant to post this a couple of days ago but really lacked on my revision standpoint.  This is my last response to The Truman Show.  I wanted to do a poem because it seemed like a good topic to do a poem on unlike the first post I did on The Truman Show.  I am trying to leave it in open forum but closed forum for this piece.  Please leave feedback and comments.

The Stage so bright
as the lights go up
and the spotlight
shines down right on you

you are the star
but you don't know it
your normal life
is a show

you are on the stage
with a bunch of actors
but those actors control you
and your every movement

you are a puppet
in their show
but you are living you life
or so you thought

every step you take
is spotlighted on T.V.
but you don't know
you are in the spotlight

they play your life
like its as important as a pawn
and you have no decision
in what you do

but you keep going along
like you are living
but the real fact is
your life is nothing but a stage

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Power Within

Author's Note - This is a response to The Truman Show which we watched in class the other day.  Control was one of the themes that was expressed with Truman not knowing where to turn.  His world is a controlled world where he has no say in what happens.  Not even his own actions.  He is controlled to the point where it's as if he can't think for himself but rather have other people control his own subconscious.


Control is something that takes us into a new world that we've never experienced in our life.  We work to get control.  Control is the goal in life to everybody and is a way of human life.  But the extent is what takes us way overboard.  We work so hard to gain control that it not only screws up our life, but the people around us.  A promotion is gaining more control.  But to get there is the real journey.  When we get a promotion, it's not as much of a good thing, but rather something that can ruin ours and other people's lives forever.

Gaining control is more of a requirement than a desire.  When we gain control, it almost feels like we are being manipulated to a point in which we are taking control of things we don't even want to be a part of.  While getting to higher places, we don't realize what we've actually done to get there until we get there.  When you look back at the destruction you made, you realize that what you have gotten to does not outweigh the destruction you've made.  We grasp onto what  we are told to do and do not let go.  If we don't please, we are thrown under the bus and are disrespected for the rest of our lives.

Fear drives us to control.  With control, comes fear of losing control. With every move that we make, fear strikes our brain into thinking that if we do not keep pushing through and gaining more control, we will not succeed.  Fear is the destructive nature in the world.  Fear drives the people that do the destruction.  When we keep moving every day and what makes our decisions us fear.  We look at the world and have this sense of being not good enough and fear strikes us that if we do not keep destructing, we will destruct our self.  When fear drives us towards control, we have done the ultimate sin by following.  When we follow fear, we have stooped to somewhere that we can never be released.  Fear and control take a grip on our life and never let go.  When control overwhelms us, we are driven to destruction and never go back.

Friday, April 8, 2011

The Flickering Light

Author's Note - The Poem on the top is called "Lines for Winter" by Mark Strand.  I tried to write it with the same number of syllybuls in each line as his original poem, but my main goal was to make a poem that captures the meaning of the first poem.  The meaning of this first poem is that there is that you push through every day and make the next better.  That nothing can stop you and done drone on the bad in life, but rather push through and make every moment worth while.  Make every moment better than the last and that when you die, you will not regret anything because what you did in life, was all with a meaning and all part of a great life.  I hope you enjoy my poem.

Lines for Winter

Tell yourself

as it gets cold and gray falls from the air

that you will go on

walking, hearing

the same tune no matter where

you find yourself --

inside the dome of dark

or under the cracking white

of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.

Tonight as it gets cold

tell yourself

what you know which is nothing

but the tune your bones play

as you keep going. And you will be able

for once to lie down under the small fire

of winter stars.

And if it happens that you cannot

go on or turn back and you find yourself

where you will be at the end,

tell yourself

in that final flowing of cold through your limbs

that you love what you are.

The Flickering Light


Look at life

As everything dies in the dark night

That you will not go

Rather move on

And keep following your heart

Where it takes you

And keep moving forward

and that you don’t look backward

But rather look forward to the next minute

And make the next moment

Worth much more

And make this moment greater

Than the moment before

And keep that in your memory and use that

As motivation for your next bad moment

And keep moving

And if you cannot keep moving on

You just turn back and realize that

As you look back, you are great,

And move

For as long as you can until you can't move

You always loved your life

Monday, April 4, 2011

Another Day Another Penny

You think you have it hard. You have no idea. A new name, Walton Jeffers, added to the wall of shame.  That’s me.  I have never been the popular or attractive kid in the school; not all that smart either.  Nothing to do but be ashamed of having my name on the wall of shame.  That’s what they call it at our school.  I’m not always beaten up but have been the victim of some bully attempts.  Today was the worst.  Five swirlies, twice thrown into the trash cans, literally thrown, and my name on the wall of shame... for the 24th time and its only the third month of school. This time was the worst.  It wasn’t even my fault. I was just fighting to get away from the sixth swirlie. They finally decided to stop.  

Mama’s going to be so mad.  My best shirt with a bunch of toilet water all over it.  I thought eighth grade was going to be the best year of my life.  So far it’s my record for least number of times written on the wall.  By this time last year, it was 26.  But I’m sure those jerks will change that in a hurry. Those jerks just won’t give up no matter how loud i scream or how many times i use those stupid bullying reports. Sure those bullying reports will get them a detention or two but that surly makes them want to bully me more.   Those stupid teachers have no idea what really goes on around here.

My parents are going through a divorce and my mom has been struggling to keep the house up and running.  I never really have lived in an “expensive” house.  Just a two story apartment.  I’m not complaining at all.  I’m just pointing out facts.  Last time I did my homework was last year.  I don’t get the point of homework.  I don’t see the point of school either.  The world is going to end in 2012 anyways, why should anybody care about learning or the future.  Because there is no future.

I got home from school to finally find a happy mother. This was quite a surprise with the divorce and everything but I defiantly wasn’t complaining. She was talking on the phone with her best friend Jenny. She’s almost as bad as those jerks when my mom isn’t around; but its been one of the only things that is keeping her sane through the divorce so I haven’t told her.


Crap. Here comes my dad.  There goes a good after noon with a pleasant mother. I really hate my dad. Did I ever tell you how they met. Vegas.I bet you find that such a surprise considering how well the two years they’ve been together have been for all three of us.  A soon as i saw him walking up the sidewalk i turned and went to my room, the only peaceful place in the house besides my superman comics in the living room.  It’s actually quite a good time to dig your head into one of those things.  I’m on volume 6 out of all 101 volumes.  Greatest comics ever.  So far I’ve also read batman and Garfield.  All of the volumes of each and the whole of them aren’t near as good as superman.

Thank God, i just saw Jimmer walking down the street to my house. That means i have an excuse to get out of the house before all of the fighting starts. Whoops my bad it already has. The doorbell, my favorite thing besides my comics. I guess I won’t bother their “debate” and i will just get the hell out of here and go play some basketball and video games with Jimmer. God, with Jimmers basketball talents I can’t believe he hasn’t left me for the popular peeps.

Well Jimmers house is a long walk away and it was already getting dark so we decided to skip basketball and went straight to the elite cartoon violence of the Nintendo 64.  It’s 2011 for God sake and I still don’t have an Xbox. Talk about old technology.  I can’t even afford a Nitendo 64 for Christ’s sake.  I found mine in a garage sale that I passed on my way home from school one day for ten bucks.  I had eleven.  With my mom’s salary the way it is, we’ll be lucky to keep the house.  Looks like I’m going to have to get a job at a fast food place. That way my mom doesn’t have to pay for food and I can help with the bills.

I only went over to Jimmer’s for about an hour.  His dad was too lazy to get his fat butt off the couch and drive me home and my mom can’t afford to drive anywhere unneeded so i walked home, another time that is very peaceful for me.  My dad is moving all the way out to West Virginia on Monday and I’m stuck in this dump with my mom in New York.  I’m just glad that I can still stay with my mom.  There’s no way I would have lived if I would have had to stay with my dad.  I actually have a piece of mind with my mom.

But back to my story.  I only went over to Jimmers for an hour because his dads stupid girlfriend got home and we didn’t want to be around with her there. I asked Jimmer if he wanted to come over if my dad was gone and he said he was going down to the local ice cream place where he knows a nice guy who will let him sleep in the shop for a while. Anyways, when I got home my mom and dad, since I have to call him that, where still fighting so I ran in, grabbed a new superman comic and ran to my room to hide away. Then all hell broke loose. My dad came storming up the steps screaming, i was so scared i almost pissed myself. My mom was screaming “I swear to God if you hurt him i will stab you in the head.” I ran to try to lock the door but I was too late he burst into the door.

He was clearly drunk, that made me even more scared, I knew his tiny moral compass was now completely gone. My mother came sprinting up the steps my dad turned around and she started screaming the most vulgar insults she could push past her lips, and while she was doing that he returned the favor. While they were having their insult war I ran past them and down the steps and out the door. I had just made the decision, I was running away.

I walked downtown and found that ice cream parlor and figured i could spend some time there with Jimmer. I walked in and found him in the back eating some kind of ice cream, it looked good. I sat down and told him what happened and he said I could stay with him for at least a few nights. We took a short nap, in separate booths of corse; I wouldn’t want you to think I was fruity or anything. After we woke up we started to walk back to his house, it was pitch black and he doesn’t live in the best neighborhood so we jogged back and went in through the back door. We decided to sleep downstairs in the living room tonight.



The next morning, I woke up and looked at the clock.  It read 7:00. I woke Jimmer up with haste because school starts at 7:30 and we ran to my house to grab my stuff and ran all the way to school.  Within the first thirty minutes of school, I had gotten my name written on the wall twice, two wedgies, and just happened with my luck, stepped in dog crap. Well lunch didn’t look to bad except I was sitting alone, again. Jimmer has a different lunch hour than me so I just sat in the corner and ate my mashed potatoes and some meat hat looked like it had gotten rolled in llama fur.. Luckily I only got hit with three or four peas from the jerks table, but one got stuck in my ear. after lunch I went out to recess, a no man’s land for people like me. I sat down in the grass and started to pick at my elbow while reading my Superman comics.  Then the jerks came over with some mud from the baseball field.  You can guess what happened next.  I went in early from recess to try to wash myself off before math class, the worst class of the day. I’m in the dumb math class with all of the jerks.  They just sit there and pelt me with spit balls made of paper from their notebooks while my blind math teacher, Mr. Rivers, stares at the board thinking were taking notes on what he’s teaching us.  He’s clueless.

The final bell.  My favorite sound of the day. But then again, my least favorite at the same time.  The final bell means the end of school but open season on my face if I don’t get out of school in five minutes.  Jimmer met me at my locker at about 2:48 and we sprinted out of school, just to find all of the jerks waiting for us on the playground.  I definitely wasn’t faster than them but Jimmer’s house was only three blocks away.  Not saying his dad would care if we got beat up but the people chasing us don’t know that.  We sprinted down the block going through twigs and a bunch of other stuff that was in our way.  There was a tree that had fallen from the lightening storm late last night.  Jimmer was at least ten feet ahead of me and wasn’t looking back.  I tried to hurdle the tree and my pants got caught and ripped right off.  Story of my life.

After fighting the tree for my pants we started to walk back to Jimmers house. The jerks that were chasing us were too busy laughing to follow us so we had nice walk the rest of the way to Jimmers if you consider getting laughed at by twenty people nice.  But at least we weren’t getting beat up.  When we got there all the doors were locked so we decided to take a walk to my house. When we finally got there my dad was still there, or he just got there, either was horrible.  He was having a major hang over just to add onto it.  But just as you thought he wasn’t drunk, he got another one out of the fridge.  What a surprise.

Jimmer and i went in through the front door and ran downstairs to get a Coke. We switched on our 30”x30” T.V. and watched some Sportscenter before going to get another coke.  Then we played the Nintendo 64 for a while and then Jimmer had to go home... and I was stuck with my dad.  My mom was gone for the night.  She had to work until midnight and my dad had to stay with me until then.  My mom should have just realized that I’m safer without my dad there.   Jimmer invited me to come but you guessed it, my dad said no and made me go to bed.  It was only 6 o’clock and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet.  I guess no dinner for me tonight.  Oh well.  I snitched a couple of the super man comics and read them until around 9 o’clock and finally went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up not to my alarm but the screams of my mom.  I couldn’t tell where it was coming from but I could tell it wasn’t good.  I went downstairs to the living room where my dad was drunk still and my mom was in the corner.  I didn’t know what to do so I tackled my dad and punched him in the face a couple of times until he threw me off him and ran to his car and drove away.  Thank god he hadn’t stayed there.  That would have been horrible.  After that, my mom had decided to never let my dad within a 100 foot radius of the house.  She was thinking about going to court with it but had no evidence of anything that he had done so she would surely lose.

Jimmer moved to this school about two or three months ago.  That was when I had no friends at all.  We ran into each other in the hallway and asked me if I wanted to go over to his house.  At first I denied and said no but later that day said yes.  We walked to his house and played Nintendo 64.  That was the day we became friends.  That’s slowly changing. People are finally recognizing that he’s amazing at basketball.  Even better than those filthy jerks.  We use to hang out every day.  It’s starting to turn into every other day.  He’s actually hanging with some of the soccer players but they’re not too popular. I think I’m just over-reacting though.  He’s still my best friend.  But then again, he’s my only friend.

When I got home my mom was there and had my “dinner” ready for me.  I feel really bad for her.  My dad has been so mean to her and she’s losing money.  She’s applying for cooking school so that she can go into a cooking business instead of serving people at Applebee’s.  She said I had to take her job while she was going to school.  It shouldn’t be too hard.  But the dinner was actually pretty good.  It was the best dinner I had had in a while.  I had potatoes, tomatoes, a peach, some sort of cereal, and a glass of milk.  I usually get about two carrots, ten peas, and cereal.  My mom is actually a great cook.  I don’t know why she won’t just apply for a job right now.  She needs the money and what does she have to lose.

After dinner, I just went right up to my room and read a little bit of the 11th volume of superman and then went to bed.  I was really tired. My mom wants to put me in a depression institute but you know, I really don’t care if I’m depressed.  That might be half the reason why I’m depressed.  But I was thinking that whole night about how we need money.  I thought I was about to puke after dinner tonight.  The Captain Crunch was stale and the milk was rotten but I have to eat something.  I just went straight to bed hoping that I wouldn’t puke in my sleep and feel a little bit better the next morning.

I met Jimmer at the bus stop the next morning and guess who was there with him.  All of those jerks.  I was about to take Jimmer and pull him out of there because I thought he was being bullied but when I got over there, he was talking to them about basketball.  I knew he was gonna become friends with them sooner or later because of basketball.  I asked him if he wanted to come sit with me on the bus but he was already gonna sit with the stupid jerks he is soon to call friends.  As soon as I turned around I heard footsteps and started running.  I felt a barreling round fist right in the center of my spine and went down hard.  I looked up and the bus was there.  I got up and started to run towards the doors but they closed and the bus started to roll away.

I knew right then Jimmer was gone.  He was friends with those jerks.  That piece of crap.  I hate him.  Just because he’s good at basketball he ditches me for some jerks.  I got to school and he came over to my locker and apologized.  I wanted to just go off on him but I retained my anger. I realized that it was only one time.  I accepted his apology and was thinking that it would never happen again.  How dumb am I.  The next hour I was at my locker and down the hallway comes Jimmer with his best friends the stupid jerks.  They threw me in the trash can and ran away. I can’t believe Jimmer would do that to me. I thought that we would be friends forever.  What was I thinking.

I walked home by myself that day and realized that Jimmer was no longer my friend.  I’m not quite sure if he was ever my “friend”.  All of this crap whirling around really irritates me.  I guess I’m going back to the days when I didn’t have any friends.  Oh well.  I survived then, I can survive now........ hopefully.

I got home that night and ate Captain Crunch with no milk.  I learned that lesson the hard way.  I puked last night.  I learned that in the morning when there was white stuff with tan spots all over my pillow.  One of the worst days ever.  I would have to say that this has been the worst  week ever though.  With all of this stuff that has been going on, it’s been the worst week ever.   And that’s saying something.

I got done with my bowl of Captain Crunch and saw my dad walking up the sidewalk.  He looked kind of wobbly and I ran to tell my mom right away.  She said to lock all of the doors and shut all of the shades on the windows.  I ended up going up into the attic and looking through a tiny window we have up there.  I also listened through a hole in the wall.  I made that when I was trying to clean out the attic.  I found a hammer and tried to throw it in a box and it missed and hit the wall.  I guess it turned out to be a good hole to make after all.

He knocked on the door and was calling for Jane.  My mom’s name is Mary.  I don’t think he was stable in his mind.  He had a beer in his hand.  Who knows what number that one was.  After he stood there for at least five minutes, he walked away down the stairs, turned around, ran up the steps, and ran into the wall.  You could hear a loud bang.  It was definitely loud and clear but the wall didn’t move at all.  He tried that three times and finally finished his beer and threw the bottle at the wall and walked away.  

After that my mom went to the door and looked out to find him gone. It was Saturday so I didn’t have to go to school, but the day was still ruined due to the fact that I have no friends and that little outburst. Just to add onto it, it is Saturday which means my dad doesn’t have work.  Which also means he’s free for the whole day.  He doesn’t have anywhere to go either.  He lives in a box on the sidewalk because he’s waiting for his house to be built.  It’s a really nice house.  He’s really high in his work and has a job that pays a lot.  I don’t know if anybody has found out about his drinking problem and I don’t know if anybody will ever find out.  He’s always sober on the weekdays but on weekends, he is wild.

Since the day that Jimmer and I were friends, we made a pact to always be friends.  It was even written in Volume 31 of my Superman comics.  It could not be broken....... at least that’s what I thought.  I’ve always wanted a best friends but I never had one until about two days ago... not anymore.  That stupid jerk just ditched me for kids that have bullied him since the day they found out he was my best friend.  It’s all a bunch of crap.  But oh well.  Just have to move on.

After all that, I just went and took a nap on my couch.  Bad decision.  I woke up and found my cat had peed all over my face and on my clothes and was taking a nap on my face.  I only have three hairballs stuffed in my mouth.  They tasted like a carpet with mud all over it.  I guess I can’t blame on anyone but me.  Just adds onto my day.  I shot up off the couch and quickly ran into the bathroom and puked in the toilet.  Or at least I tried to puke in the toilet.  I made it to the door and it just came pouring out.  Half of it was on the floor and the other half was in the toilet.  My mom made me clean it up.  I ran upstairs and grabbed a little doctor’s mask that I got when a doctor came into my second grade classroom and I won it for answering a question right.  I was tempted to throw it away right then.  Good thing I didn’t because I need it now.

After I cleaned it all up, I had a bowl of cereal.  I forgot to wash my hands.  I kind of ruined the bowl of cereal after a hairball and a piece of hairy ham dropped into my bowl.  I would have gotten another bowl but I lost my appetite after that  I just called Jimmer then.  He came over and I talked to him about the whole basketball player thing. He said that he was just getting information on the tryouts and stuff like that.  I believed him.  Or at least that’s what he thinks.  Really, that’s crap.  There’s no way it was “just about basketball.”  He hasn’t talked to me the past two days at school and every time I see him, he’s with those jerks.

What’s the point in life?  To me that’s just a question I think about a lot these days.  And to me, that’s a fairly useful question to think about.  You can end it any time and sometimes, that seems like a better choice than to live.  I don’t know if I want to be here or in hell.  I’m not even sure that I’d go to heaven if I did die.  That’s ok.  The devil will be a better friend than Jimmer.  That’s what brings me here.  I wanted to write this as a review of why I am about to do what I am about to do.  I have no friends, I get bullied every day, and everything that I do ends up a failure.  If what is about to happen really cures that, then that is what I will do.  With all of this crap that I have and with my life the way it is, I pull the trigger.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Fire of Life

Author's Note - This poem is about a piece of art at the museum.  The lion staring off into the sunset made me inspired to write about how fire and heat bring things to life.  This piece is a very romantic piece of art.  It involves live and power.  This piece includes romantic pieces such as the lion.  There is also life symbolism in this piece.  This poem includes interesting coinciding objects such  as fire and life.  Please leave your comments and improvements.

Life flourishes
on this graceful earth
with sprinkles of hope
in the fire of life

The trees bud
and the flowers show
their beautiful colors
in the fire of life


The city gleam
with hope and joy
for every child's home
has the fire of life


The forest sings
with life beneath
With the dancing of the trees
in the fire of life


All animals in harmony
As they talk about peace
with the love possible
in the fire of life

People look
for gleaming light
and they find above
the fire of life

The clouds may cover
the heat of the sun
but they cannot overtake
the fire of life

The flowers dance
with the grass walking freely
and all made possible
with the fire of life

And the love of life
with the joy of happiness
that nothing can cover
the fire of life.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Experience to Innocence


                We’ve all heard of the transition from innocence to experience but only exiguous amounts of people have heard of the gruesome trip from experience to innocence.  We all make the transition sometime in life from innocence to experience but there’s always that feeling of wanting to go back.  Holden Caulfield is on this trail trying to go from experience to innocence but lives too far in the experienced world, that there is no way of crawling back.
Holden is your regular school boy.  His family makes an honest living and he lives in school dorms with his roommate Stradlater.  He has already been kicked out of school and is now being kicked out of his current school Pency.  He is failing every class but one.  He doesn’t seem to care though.  He has already lost his will of living.  He feels as though his importance on the earth is nothing but a speck of dirt.  He has lost his innocence and doesn’t quite where to turn.  He doesn’t have an idea of what he wants or needs to do.  Holden is homeless on the streets with nobody to turn to for advice but two old teachers of his.  One of which he slept at his house and woke to his former teacher petting him on the head.  He really has no guidance on where to go and is messed up in his own world of emptiness.

                There is always this transition in life from innocence to experience.  When you are a little toddler, you are innocent.  You don’t know left and right just like you don’t know right and wrong.  People always go through this change but it’s the people who want to go back who are just as confused as the toddlers.  It’s almost like war.  When you kill all of these people, can you ever go back to just being normal?  The answer is yes but it might take all of your sanity to get there.  This is what happened to Holden Caulfield.  He drinks and smokes and is already in the experienced world only at the age of twelve.   His body and the way he acts is like he has already graduated from college.  Holden is fighting to get back to the innocent world but at times veers from the track.  He is on his way and is using all of his power to get there and is slowly headed towards insanity.
                Holden is trying to get back to a regular life that he should be living.  But the path back is not an easy one.  He is caught in the world of experience in which he cannot find his way out.  He does not know where to go and everywhere he turns is a dead end.  The road from innocence to experience is not an easy road but to go from experience to innocence could cost you your sanity or even your life.  We don’t think about everybody that is on the road back and Holden is caught in this.  Nobody really realizes what his goal is to get back to.  Holden is fighting to get back and is slowly going towards insanity every moment of his life.  He is trying to move back to where he was and where he wants to be but has gone astray from the hidden trail.
                The trail that Holden is on is one of great struggle and a path of seclusion.  He tries to turn for people to help him but he is on his own.  It is like the world is empty.  He has nobody to help guide him on his journey back to his real life.  The life he really wants to live.  He tries to turn for help but there is nobody who is in that same state of mind.   He is slowly working his way back but in turn, losing his grip on sanity.  He looks left and right, up and down and finds nowhere to go.  Holden is confused and looks for help everywhere but finds nothing and slowly dips his way into insanity.  He has nowhere to turn and nobody to go to for help to guide him on his way back to where he wants to go.  He is caught on the boarder of innocence and experience and loses his sanity with his trip.
                Holden’s life is a pile of just mess.  He doesn’t know where to go or where to turn.  Nowhere to turn in his life as he fights his way back but doesn’t realize he is slowly going insane.  He makes his trip back to innocence but while on his way, goes back to the mindset of a toddler.  His journey back to innocence has been made but with the price of his sanity.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Hope

This piece is a response to the book Fahrenheit 451 which is a dystopic vision of the world.  This piece talks about how hope is in our lives everyday and everywhere.  This is an ironic novel that in the end, has a comic twist.  It goes back to a good world. The world that everyone is use to living in.  The text shows that hope is in our lives every day that we live and keeps us alive every waking moment.



                The hope we need is a necessity with all of the struggles we face.  Sometimes, we just turn the other cheek and don’t pay attention to what the real goal in life is.  We think too much in the future that we need hope to keep our present stable.  The book Fahrenheit 451 shows us that.  It teaches us to stop looking into the future and live life to its fullest every day, for any day might be the last.  Hope helps us survive the world, and saves us from death every moment of our lives.
                In Montag’s life, hope shines like the sun in the light blue sky.  Montag is in the dim stages of life that the world is in.  Montag thinks he’s living his life how it should be.  That’s when hope steps in.  He is met by Clarisse and Clarisse makes him think about the life that he’s living.  Clarisse asks him questions that eventually make him think, does he really want to live his life in the dust?  Hope talks to Montag and helps him through his rough times.  It makes him open his eyes to the world and accept that the life that he is living is wrong.  He goes through a pattern every day.  It is as if his life has already been set on what he is going to do and he isn’t the one that set his sights on what he is going to do.  He has no control over his own life.  Hope then shines through to start a new beginning.  He goes through life now with an open mind and an open heart to new ideas, and to new ways of.
                Bradbury makes his world seem completely and totally in chaos and is seen right away as an irony.  All hell has broken lose in this place that Bradbury conveys as our world.  Bradbury makes it as though there is no hope in Montags life.  No solution to all of his problems.  Bradbury is a contrarian who is someone who goes against the usual.  The Greeks would have said Montag would have to die in his cold life but Bradbury turns this story and makes it good at the end.  He takes the whole ironic set and turns it around.  The need for destruction is something that exists in the world.  Sometimes there is a need for destruction.  Hope shines at the end of this book.  He takes Montag’s life and flips it for the better.  Montag is living in a world of completely chaos and Bradbury takes Montag’s life and makes it for the better and start a new beginning.
                Hope shines in places that we would never think of.  Bradbury puts hope in some places that we would consider unusual.  It shines on many places including the scene where the lady decides to burn with her books.  Montag realizes that it isn’t just about what we have.  We need to expand our imagination.  When he has books in his house and  Beatty decides to let him keep the books for a couple of days to show Montag how useless they are.  But probably the most unusual place is during the bombing of the city.  Bradbury utilizes something that is considered dangerous and bad and turns it into something good.  He uses the bomb as something good and not evil.  He shows the need for destruction.  He makes the hope shine in destruction and torture and portrays it as something that is useful and good.
                The book also relates to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.  The story goes that people just look at shadows and flames as they are chained to the wall.  One guy breaks away from his chains and goes outside the cave and sees the sun and goes back to tell the others and they kill him saying there is no such thing.  This is the way things are and this is the way they will always be.  Montag can be seen as the guy who walks out of the cave and tries to shares his thoughts with the world.  He ends up being chased and if caught, killed.  Montag tries to make people think about if they are living the lives that they really want to be living.
Hope is the reason Montag is still alive in the world that he lives in.  His world is a messed up world with treachery and terror.  It is a dystopic world with everything that bad that you could possibly think of.  This shows when Montag is running away from the government when he kills Beatty.  There are people all around but nobody seems to notice Montag weaving in and out of danger.  Bradbury tries to implicate that there is always hope in your life.  There is always something to work for.  Hope is something one thing that keeps you alive from day to day.  It shows you that love is there and is the reason why you are still living your life and still fighting to stay alive.
Hope shines in our life whether we realize it or not.  We don’t realize when hope is there and when it’s not.  It’s all around us and we are just use to it.  We don’t realize that hope is in our lives every day everywhere.  Anytime we need it, we have it.  It is like our right hand man.  It saves us from death and evil, and everything in between.
 

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Stream of Life

This idea came to me as I was reading a symbolic book of Irony. It was almost as though I wanted to get to a Romantic world. This piece is just an idea of the Stream of Life. Please Leave Comments.

I walk down the lightening path
As kayaks run down the stream
The fish jump
And the snails inch their way across the stream floor

The water crashes up against the rocks
As the sticks slowly float down the stream
The leaves float down from their trees
To the ground they fall

The tree's leaves turn red and orange
as little of them are green
It's like the joy of a light
and the warmth of a fire

I walk down the narrow path
Trees surrounding
The rocks crackle as the leaves crunch beneath my feet
With every intent of stopping my journey to happiness

All of life flows
With life's end in the question
And so many living things
Rejoice that they are still alive

And I walk down the path
And sit on a rock
As I slowly take a dip
In the Stream of Life

Nietzsche's Quote in Fahrenheit 451

This piece is a response to the quote “What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” These ideas flourish in my head as I write this piece. It makes me think of who I am. It also strongly relates the book Fahrenheit 451 which my Language Arts class is reading at the moment. This quote relates to life as we know it and strongly relates to the scene of the book. Its sole purpose is to relate to the heart and not the mind.

“What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” These words are from Nietzsche. The quote really speaks to the book. It has a way of speaking to the scene very clearly. There is nothing like the pain of Montag. This portion of the novel speaks to this quote and reflects upon it. It is the awakening of a new life of Montag. It opens his soul to new options. New paths to take. There are so many ways to go, and so little time to choose.

Montag has gone into quick sand and was buried up to his neck and he slowly works his way out but is constantly being pushed back down. What Bradbury is trying to say here, is Montag isn’t dead, and his pain is making him mentally stronger, and physically bolder. His mind is running in so many different directions during the scene. He is in so many different places at once. He’s pulling himself out of the quick sand again but is likely going to be pushed back down by an unknown force yet far.

Montag isn’t dead. He has been close to it many times but he has slowly grown stronger throughout the book. He has gone closer to death by opening his mind, but farther away from insanity. His mind is strong than it ever has been and is constantly getting stronger. For this reason, he is fighting to stay alive because the government is going to eventually target him because he has the brainpower and the soul will to do anything. He has been close to death which has made him stronger. He has been through the worst and he has made it through. He now knows that since he made it through those rough times, he can make it through anything.
This quote is strong and can relate to "Plato’s Allegory of the Cave." People in this world don’t accept change and don’t want change. Montag has broken free from his chains and his finally seeing the light and is going back into the cave to tell everybody else that there is more to life than what it seems. The people do not want change and now Montag is in a run for his life. He is dodging bullets left and right and is trying to get to a place where protection is key. He is running away from fear. In the book, the helicopter is trying to find him and hunt him down. The helicopter represents fear. It is trying to kill him but it hasn’t. That goes back to the quote. The helicopter by not killing him, is just making him stronger.

What Nietzsche is trying to say is in order to succeed in life, you need some kind of pain. Pain is what makes us stronger as people. He’s trying to say that when you have pain, it’s making you stronger as a person because you have been through the worst. You know what it feels like and you know from experience what to do to get out of the mess. It makes you stronger as a person. Not only does it make your mind more awake and immune to the situation, it makes your makes you a better person at the soul.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Nature

Author's Note: Nature is a majestic wonder that if not on this earth, we would not be here to this day. I got inspired to write this when I walk home and see all of the wonders around me. Hope you enjoy.

The water drizzling down the waterfall as i walk down a steep hill to get to the riverside.

The bird speak as I lay silent by the river.

The fish jump as the frogs croak as they get their last meal of the day.

Winter is approaching and chipmunks scurry by in a rush to store up for the cold, harsh winter.

Deer run as the gun shots go off in the distance.

A badger creeps out of its hole as it goes to find its dinner.

A bear roars as it roams around the woods with its cubs.

The snakes slither in the grass waiting for a victim to strike.

An eagle soars majestically above as it makes its landing in a tree and finishes its nest.

The majestic nature flourishes to this day as we see all around.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Fear

Author's Note: This piece came across my mind in sort of a doubtful way. I see fear everywhere. At school, on the street, in businesses, etc. Fear gives me inspiration to go out in the world and do something about it. This piece is more about what I see and what happens all around us but we have somehow become immune to it although it is not a human characteristic that we would not like to be tagged with. Hope you enjoy.

Fear is a word that is used throughout the world. It has become something that we see every day but yet, do nothing about because it has simply taken a seat in the back but leaves a shadow over the world. It's not so much what we want but what some of us just have had to deal with for as long as we can remember. Some of us simply take it as a slight blow to the chest, but it sometimes comes in a powerful punch. Some fight against fear but get nothing back. Not a battle one. Not a dent in the core. Nothing has become as strong as hate has.

Fear has become something that no one can stay away from. Nothing can challenge it and nothing can go against it. It has become a part of everyday life as we know it. Some don't even think about it because we simply don't recognize it. We just see it and we don't think much of it. We see it as just a tiny scratch in a car. We don't realize what it could and might become to be. Nothing seems to be able to confront the enemy that has grown to become something that people see every day. Nobody recognizes the issue that has confronted our world with such power, but seems to be unnoticed.

What our world has become to be is a dystopia of fear. Fear is like a black hole. It takes you in and never lets go. We see it every day, we just are too stubborn to admit that it is there. We refuse to even look and see the marks that it has made on the earth as we know it. It is all around us but we don't notice it because it is a casual thing for us. We don't pay attention to the damage that it has done to our core. We don't realize what it does to the inner core of us as a whole. Instead of a world of love and hope, fear evolves us into a world of hate and unforgiving people. We don't realize what could happen if fear keeps eating away at forgiveness and love and infects them with a disease of hopelessness.

Fear is a harsh world that we never pay any attention to. We don't realize what the world will evolve into if we don't keep the love and hope that is still in this world. Without love and hope, we will be nothing and fear will eat away at love and hope and will completely turn our world into a turmoil. We need to keep the fear out of our lives and create a clear path for love and hope to get in and put a gate in front of the fear that is thriving in our hearts.

Monday, March 29, 2010

The Mind Game

When is the last time you've heard of a boy and his employer going to dig up famous people's skulls to study the brain and some one's characteristics? Well that's the exact case for Matthew, an orphaned boy after his whole family died from the cholera epidemic. He has had to dig through trash cans, make shelter out of the streets, and survive with no money. Until now. Dr. ABC and Matthew will go on a wild ride to find the perfection of human kind.


Matthew Morrissey was born and raised just as every child is. But once death strikes his whole family, he is on his own. He lives on the street until one day, he comes past a help wanted sign for Dr. ABC and his phrenology business. He goes to the address that it says on the sign and ends up on the fourth floor of an apartment building with a short, plump man named Dr. ABC. Dr. ABC is in the business of phrenology which is the study of the mind that can detect a person's personality and characteristics. Dr. ABC hopes that some day, he can make man-kind perfect.


To truly test Matthew's loyalty to the him, Dr. ABC, puts him to his biggest task yet. Dr. ABC and Matthew go to the prison to dig up none other than Henry Bedlow. Matthew was tentative at first but eventually followed through with the plan. Dr. ABC wants Matthew to become his apprentice phrenologist when he grows up so Matthew studies many subjects including french, Latin, biology and many more subjects. For now, Matthew just cleans up around and helps Dr. ABC with his appointments. Dr. ABC's business was running really low and nobody was coming. Matthew decided to make a sign and the people started to flood into Dr. ABC's workplace.

Once Dr. ABC and Matthew got enough money, they moved onto many many more cities. Well there was one major news line that came up. The French were going and digging up Napoleon Bonapart. This was great news for the two for he is one of the greatest leaders to every step foot on the earth. They obviously went and while the French waited until the 25th anniversary of his exile, Matthew and Dr. ABC came up with a plan to dig him up while nobody was there. While they put their plan into action just 2 nights before his digging up by the French. They ran into a brick wall on their way. The bodysnatcher. While Gin attacked the bodysnatcher, Matthew and Dr. ABC didn't know what to do. Eventually, Matthew tried to pull Gin off because they were on the edge of the cliff. It was too late. Although Gin was alright, the bodysnatcher had fallen onto the rocks that lead into the ocean. He was gone forever. Dr. ABC and Matthew had not gone to do their duggery on Napoleon and left him to the French. They returned back to the ship with not a sense of pride but pitty for they had wasted at human's life.

Matthew and Dr. ABC were two phrenologists on a mission that is yet to be completed. Though they made a vallient effort, they did not succeed but still have a bright future ahead of them. They have created a great bond and a friendship that will last forever.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Poetry Within

The one thing need for life

A brain

The only thing that is hard enough to hold it

A head

How it is studied

Bumps

Where is it recorded

The divine place that keeps everything

How do we know it's there

Everyday studies

Who will make it possible

Everyone and Anyone

What does it make known

Personality and smarts

What makes it realistic

Phrenology

When will it save all of the people in the world

Right now

Thursday, March 18, 2010

The Meaning of Love

What is the meaning of love. Is there a point. If you ask yourself, what is love, what would you say. Everybody has love and uses it daily. It's what separates us from good and bad. Love is a healthy behavior that helps us through everyday life. What makes us happy when we're sad and brings us up when we're down. Love is a life-long needed skill and is always needed no matter where you are, when you are, and what you are.

Love is a word that cannot be described and will not be defined. It defies all odds. It doesn't give and doesn't break unless you make it break. Love doesn't control you, you control love and it will do everything and anything. It can make your day good or bad but it always pushes and exceeds expectations. When love brings you down, it is always the thing that once again, brings you back up. It is the light in the dark. It will make anything and everything good if you want it to. It can and will make a foggy day clear and will fill a picture that is black and white, with color.

A world without love. What would it be like. If you ask me, it would be a world of hopelessness and chaos. Without love, nothing would be the way it is and everything would take a wild turn down the drain until the world is one of not happy, helpful people, but a dystopic, sad, world full of hatred. There would be no holidays, no giving of thanks and no helpful hand to hold. There would be no guide to life and it would be one big mess and there would be no point of living. Nothing that wasn't right at first would not be set right. A world without love is a world of treachery and despair. No beginning, but always an end.

Anyplace and everyplace is filled with love. It is only certain places where you can make your heart flow and pour out everything that you have. It's a special place in your mind and only you know where it is. It's where you can do anything and everything with your heart and you are isolated for the moment and go to the place where you want to be at that moment. You can be you and no one else. You are the only thing that matters. It is where anything that is built up inside you, comes out. Your heart can pour out what has been locked inside for what feels like ages and nothing can be filtered out but everything is real and true.

When you think of love, the only way to describe it would be a passion because everyone has their viewpoint of the meaning but it is all something that has to do with passion. When you think about what love means to you, there are millions of answers and almost all are different. Love is one thing that everybody shares and is one of the only thing everybody shares. It is the thing that brings the world as a whole together. It is the thread in a scarf. It packs us tightly together and helps us become acquainted with each other. It bounds us together as a whole so that we may communicate and understand one another like never before.

Love is like a endless circle. It just keeps on coming. It is a relentless act that keeps pushing to make everything happy. It is the thing that makes your heart pump with joy every day. It makes your heart pound with ease. It makes you relax into a different world that is like no other. It is a world full of happy things. It makes a world that when is damaged, can be healed. It repairs hearts that are scarred with many filthy truths. It is a clenser that will flush out all evil and hold onto all good and make the world a bright place to live.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Brooklyn State of Mind Lyrics

Chandler: In Brooklyn, look in the Nolans home. They gotta child named Francie. Dat where she roam. Living in the time before telephones. She works all the time to pay off the loans. Her bosses voice drones, and her peers give her threatening tones. To top things off her brothers not mature. In a tough world as serene as a picture. Yeah in Francie’s world she’s still believin’ that there are better places that she could be leavin’. Francie’s dreamin’ that she could go to places worth conceiving. She’s livin in a world with more danger than not. She has to overcome things like a dad on shots. He drinks all night and sleeps all day, they all know he’s throwing his life away.

Brooklyn, Brooklyn, that’s where she roam. Brooklyn, Brooklyn, dats Francie ’s home.
In Brooklyn this kinda stars a rarity, but she’s tough she don’t accept no charity.

Bradford: Johnny is a poor hopeless man, going through life without a game plan, but on the other hand. his singing voice he could start a band and His dance moves could be the best in the land, yes this guy is definitely not bland. Yeah all this booze will make him lose, but this kinda life will make him choose. But to truly tighten his noose, is for his family to cut him loose.

Brooklyn, Brooklyn, dat’s where she roam. Brooklyn, Brooklyn, dats Francie’s home. In Brooklyn this kinda stars a rarity, but she’s tough she don’t accept no charity

Bradford: Katie, she’s the kind of lady, who’ll never act shady, yeah she works all day scrubbing the floors, getting in between all the doors, ya know she got a million chores, and the soap damages her skin pores. The story of her life will be in Brooklyn forever more.

Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s where she roam, Brooklyn, Brooklyn, dats Francie ’s home.
In Brooklyn this kinda star is a rarity, but she’s so tough she don’t accept no charity.

Mattie T: The little brother is another who never wants out of brooklyns cover. No he doesn’t want to learn even though his mom yearns for him to turn that way. No every day he says that he ’s a feller living a stellar Brooklyn life, even though it’s filled with grief and strife.

Bradford: Yeah Katie is another mother living under cover without a lover, with a daughter and a son, she thinks hes the one. Gotta husband on the drink, hes always on the brink of surviving off drinks. Yea gotta finda way to survive another day, cuz hes just another castaway, gone to pass away, yea we going fast today, cuz hes gotta last another day. Francie, what with that girl, she’s so nice she rocks everybodys world, she sets everyone’s mind a twirl, yeah she reads, with her hair in beads, gets all the leads on the news today, just from where she stay. Yeah in Brooklyn these streets will blow your mind, filled with wunderkind, yeah day and night , life’s tight, countless fights, lives waiting to be filled with light, with people mad who bite, so people roam slight. Gotta pick trash in the street. Gotta get these people on the beat, and straight to sleep, Cause they all feel the heat.

Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s where she roam, Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s Francies home. In Brooklyn this kinda star’s a rarity, but she’s so tough she don’t except no charity.

Mattie T: Neeley yeah he belongs to a clan, while he’s tryin to be man, but hes been drunk once, and he was in a funk once, he was a little punk once, and hes getting all the junk out, but hes still gotta family that cares for him handily, yeah his sister’s gotta job so she doesn’t have to rob,

Chandler: Yeah we got a Brooklyn, Brooklyn state of mind, the serenity here, heals the blind, oooh the racial tension, your house’s pension, people don’t pay attention, oh and did we fail to mention what went wrong, we been in Brooklyn too long. Come to Brooklyn to stay and see, all victims of discrepancy, poverty far as the eye can see, but splendidly we closen our ties, they’re there forever until somebody dies. We find the neglected, and the disrespected, and the unprotected, can we stand together, whether or not, we own a lot. We need a little land, a place stand, built by hand, or have we stranded, have we been branded inferior, by our superior.

Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s where she roam, Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s Francies home. In Brooklyn this kinda star’s a rarity, but she’s so tough she don’t except no charity.

Chandler: Sissy, she’s been involved with tons of men, and nobody knows where she’ been, with her dresses she wants to be someone’s bestest. Yeah she only wants a baby, but with the problems it’s a maybe, with the deaths it’s operation no go, so she’s forced to go solo.

Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s where she roam, Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s Francies home. In Brooklyn this kinda star’s a rarity, but she’s so tough she don’t except no charity.

Mattie T: Yeah, before the times of Jay-Z Brooklyn’s kinda crazy, lifetimes get hazy, people getten spacey, wearing dresses so lacey, when there was nobody named Stacey. Yeah the brother’s getttin a little lova. The people in Brooklyn get so so scary when there was no Mathew perry. Yeah , there’s some creepy convicts, they ask what’s the verdict, as they try to predict, what the future holds, fates in bold, bonds of gold, street corner mold, what they all where told, before they grew too old. We ask are you fo sho, what’s the total, escape is our motto, where’s your afro our bro.

Bradford: AAAAAOOOOOHHHHHHHÿÿ!

Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s where she roam, Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s Francies home. In Brooklyn this kinda star’s a rarity, but she’s so tough she don’t except no charity.

Yeah, Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s where she roam, Brooklyn, Brooklyn that’s Francies home. In Brooklyn this kinda star’s a rarity, but she’s so tough she don’t except no charity.
RESPECT

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Walking Home

Aaron, Brad and I all walk home after school. One day, we did some really strange things. First, the UPS guy has an eye on us from now on lets say. Every time we would see him, we would wave to him and run back and forth across the street as many times as we could before he came. If that wasn't enough, we would talk to him a little bit and he would never respond. Next, Aaron left and Brad and I got to SS and the entrance to Steeple Chase and there are two big signs that have Steeple Chase written on them and lights shining on them. Well, me Brad decided to play the statue game in front of them. Every time a car past, we would stand perfectly still and act like a statue. We got more into this game and we decided to play dead on the sign of Steeple Chase.

Eventually, this got a bit boring so we started to try the rope trick. If you don't know what the rope game is, all you do is act like you have a rope in your hands and you stand on opposite sides of the street and act like your pulling tight on a rope and try to get the car to stop. If they don't you jump and look like the car pulled you along with it. We tried it on some people. I never worked but some of the people were amused by it, others were not. For example, we tried it on some high school guys. They were not in a good mood. They drove right through and beeped at us.
Now if that wasn't enough for a walk home, we put our musical talents and displayed them to the world by singing Hey Jude to the World. Some people were amused but yet again, others were not. It didn't affect us at all. We just kept singing. If you haven't noticed, we don't really care what anybody says about us, it just flows. If that wasn't enough to do on a walk home, we were cutting through someones yard and there was a huge dog right on the porch that we didn't see. Anyways, it barked and we ran but it chased us but luckily, it had an electric fence. Well that's it. Trust me, there are plenty of more adventures to come.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Sledding

Jack, Aaron, Kyle, and me went sledding last weekend. We went to this ski hill in Waukeshau. This hill is like three times as tall as Dead Man's Hill and is the same steepness. The only downfall is that people always get in your way so you have to like slow down halfway down the hill and you never go that fast. It really sitnks. Anyway, there are four different hills that you can go down. We went down the 2nd fastest and the last fastest. The fastest one was filled with creepers and it was like 5 at night and was getting really dark outside. There was a jump on both of them but the other one like stopped you from going but we kept trying to do it. We went off the jump for the other one like 4 times each. I had two good launchs but that was it. We then went over to the other hill not know that it was really slow but there was like nobody there so we figured that we would try it out. We would get a big running start and go off the jump there. One time, Jack ran up and over-jumped the sled and did a faceplant right into the snow. It was really funny and me and Kyle were cracking up. Aaron didn't really see it but Jack had snow in his mouth and ears and everything. We took one slide down the good hill and then we had to leave. I was finally going really fast but then Kyle ran into me and ruined it. It was really fun and funny.

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