Courage
"Speaking of Courage" is a post-war story based on Noman Bowkers's reflection. Some may say that it was very cowardly for Bowker not to save Kiowa, but just because you aren't very courageous, doesn't mean you're a coward. It would've taken a lot of courage to save Kiowa, courage that I certainly don't have, so what makes him a coward if it's something a lot of us wouldn't do? Remember, most of the people in war are just regular citizens that were DRAFTED into the war not by choice. The them "Cowardliness vs Courage" is often displayed in the novel. In example, choosing to go to the war or run from it. Running from could be considered cowardly and courageous, same with going to war. It's either you courageous to go to war and fight for your country or courageous to stand up for what you believe in and run from it. Similar to going to the courageous scenarios, are the cowarly scenarios. You are either cowardly to feed into the government's force by going to war, or cowardly by running away, hiding. In situations like these, everyone is courageous. No option in cowardly in my opinion. First off, you were mandated to go to war so you didn't really have a choice. With that being said, the tough choice you have to make is courageous regardless.
Memoir
After reading several of the memoirs, I've decided that The Homeless is the one I'd call my favorite. The author gives very descriptive, but short descriptions. In example, "...dust tornado would whirl by in the rocky desert, and I would watch it twirl and twirl until there was nothing left of it but a puff of smoke floating up into the sky." That quotes is an example of imagery. It makes me imagine what the atmosphere was like and how I feel in that situation. Also imagery is figurative language which is important for a memoir. Imagery lets others read about your experiences which is essential. I think the story is pretty cool because it's based on the future. But, that also means it doesn't have a lesson that was learned since it never happened, but it's still the most interesting in my opinion. However, it still shows how he was inspired by his experience and wants to build a house for the homeless. In the quote about he gave good detail, but some important detail he leaves out. Like his background, he mentions his brother and father very vaguely.
Vietnam War
Why did America fight in the Vietnam War? What was the opposition about?
Basically, the U.S. fought in the war to help stop the spread of communism. The war started of Souther vs Northern Vietnam before the U.S. felt "obligated" to jump in. This may not have been the best decision considering the amount of people loss and how it could've been prevented if they minded their own business. This was the first war the United States lost in and it wasn't even their war. The objective of joining the war wasn't reached. American citizens were against the war and lead an Anti-War Movement. We didn't want the war because it wasn't our business, and if President Nixon would've listened to his citizens, we would've been in a little less debt.
Sources:
Other people's blogs helped
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_the_U.S._involvement_in_the_Vietnam_War
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/antiwar.html
My Mom's Cousin, a veteran of the war
Basically, the U.S. fought in the war to help stop the spread of communism. The war started of Souther vs Northern Vietnam before the U.S. felt "obligated" to jump in. This may not have been the best decision considering the amount of people loss and how it could've been prevented if they minded their own business. This was the first war the United States lost in and it wasn't even their war. The objective of joining the war wasn't reached. American citizens were against the war and lead an Anti-War Movement. We didn't want the war because it wasn't our business, and if President Nixon would've listened to his citizens, we would've been in a little less debt.
Sources:
Other people's blogs helped
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_the_U.S._involvement_in_the_Vietnam_War
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/antiwar.html
My Mom's Cousin, a veteran of the war
George's P.O.V.
George isn't present in a lot of scenes in Chapters 1-7, and the one that he is present in, my partner used :(. So I had to read ahead to find another one and I found tons in Chapter 8. Here's one of the dialogues (starting at pg. 159):
I spoke to her . . . I told her she might fool me, but she couldn't fool God. I took her to the window . . . and I said "God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing. You may fool me, but you can't fool God! God sees everything! ( as I see God)
Then Michaelis tries to convince me that I'm looking at Dr. T.J. Eckleburg's advertisement as he says "That's an advertisement". I just decide to turn my head back to the room, but I still stood there with my face close to the window pane, nodding into the twilight. Later around 6, Michaelis and I heard the sound of a car stopping outside. It was the watcher guy that came and made breakfast for three, I was quieter by then. After breakfast, Michaelis went home to take a nap and that's when left. I'm pretty sure he came back to the garage looking for me though. I headed to Port Roosevelt and then to Gad's Hill and I took a sandwich and coffee with me, I didn't even eat it though. I was getting kind of tired so I didn't reach Gad's Hill until around noon. I can't tell you where I went directly after that but later in the night I was trying to Gatsby's house to handle some business. I also won't tell you who told me to go Gatsby's. When I got to West Egg, and specifically Gatstby's I was chatting with his butler for a while, but then later handled my business. He was gone, and now it's my turn. BYE BYE!
I spoke to her . . . I told her she might fool me, but she couldn't fool God. I took her to the window . . . and I said "God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing. You may fool me, but you can't fool God! God sees everything! ( as I see God)
Then Michaelis tries to convince me that I'm looking at Dr. T.J. Eckleburg's advertisement as he says "That's an advertisement". I just decide to turn my head back to the room, but I still stood there with my face close to the window pane, nodding into the twilight. Later around 6, Michaelis and I heard the sound of a car stopping outside. It was the watcher guy that came and made breakfast for three, I was quieter by then. After breakfast, Michaelis went home to take a nap and that's when left. I'm pretty sure he came back to the garage looking for me though. I headed to Port Roosevelt and then to Gad's Hill and I took a sandwich and coffee with me, I didn't even eat it though. I was getting kind of tired so I didn't reach Gad's Hill until around noon. I can't tell you where I went directly after that but later in the night I was trying to Gatsby's house to handle some business. I also won't tell you who told me to go Gatsby's. When I got to West Egg, and specifically Gatstby's I was chatting with his butler for a while, but then later handled my business. He was gone, and now it's my turn. BYE BYE!
Fight to Save American Dream
As said in my article “The number of people living in poverty is increasing and is expected to increase further, despite the recovery. The proportion of people living in poverty has increased by 27 percent between the year before the onset of the Great Recession (2006) and 2010… Poverty is expected to increase again in 2011 due to the slow pace of the economic recovery, the persistently high rate of unemployment, and the long duration of spells of unemployment.” The american dream to most is to get a nice job and live a safe, free, and successful life. BUT with the world's poverty rate increasing and employment increasing, the american dream is becoming less and less possible. Four billion people report they've been unemployed for over a year. Four million people?!?! . . . and that's only the people that report it. That's crazy. Budget cuts have gotten ridiculous and plays a big role in unemployment. Inequality matters! As said in the article "If you get sick without health coverage, inequality matters. If you’re the only breadwinner and out of work, inequality matters. If your local public library closes down and you can’t afford books on your own, inequality matters. If budget cuts mean your child has to pay to play on the school basketball team, sing in the chorus or march in the band, inequality matters. If you lose your job as you’re about to retire, inequality matters. If the financial system collapses and knocks the props from beneath your pension, inequality matters."
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/17/the_fight_to_save_the_american_dream/singleton/
Watch The Throne album review
WARNING
This blog may (will) contain explicit lyrics but they were needed to get my points across.
H.A.M.
The first line says " It was all good just a week ago". You would think he is referring to how things were better last week, but no. He's saying this is how their competition will feel when Watch The Throne drops. He's saying the album will cause havoc throughout the industry. Basically all of the lines are deeper than they seem and I can't cover all of the, but the ones that stand out in my head the most, I will. Moving forward, Kanye West says "And if life's a b**ch then s*ck my d*ck, huh? And I bet she f*cked the whole clique, huh? By the way, you should f*cking quit n*gga" The first sentence of my quote he's referring to the rapper Nas's saying "life is a b....." and he's saying that he wants a . . . from life because apparently that's what b*tches do. Next, he indirectly talks about Amber Rose. She basically smashed the whole Taylor Gang rap group. This is an attack to Amber Rose and Wiz Khalifa because Kanye is basically saying Amber Rose is Wiz Khalifa's sloppy seconds. Then, he says you should quit. He's talking about Wiz Khalifa again, attacking his rapping skills. Later in the same verse he says he's kicking people out like pam. He refers to Pam from the Martin show.
No Church in the Wild
In Jay-Z's verse, he says: "Lies on the lips of a priest, Thanksgiving disguised as a feast." What he's saying is that the church is lying and the real meaning of Thanksgiving is negative but's it's hidden by the positive of a get together feast. The clergy assisted colonists in cheating and killing Native Americans, yet Thanksgiving is meant to celebrate it as a feast of cooperation. In Kanye's verse, he says :"We formed a new religion, No sins as long as there’s permission, And deception is the only felony, So never f*ck nobody without telling me."Explained in keeping with the religious motif of the song, ‘Ye has discovered that, in the words of The Beatles (who were, after all, bigger than Jesus) “All you need is love”. John Lennon has gone on to clarify: "I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that's what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong." These lyrics continue the themes of free will in the hook, as well as the concept developed in Jay’s verse of himself, ‘Ye, and Jesus as the holy trinity (aka God). But about never f*cking anybody without telling ‘Ye, the kind of love that Kanye needs is open, honest, ethical nonmonogamy. He has thrown off the shackles of traditional (or religious) expectations of what a relationship is, declaring that as long as everything either party does is consensual and okayed by their partner (ie there is “permission”) it is not a “sin”. Breaking the trust necessary for this kind of relationship to work is the only serious offense (or “felony”). Later in the same verse he says "Two tattoos one read "No Apologies",The other said "Love is Cursed by Monogamy", It’s something that the pastor don’t preach, It’s something that a teacher can’t teach". A perfect apostle for the Church of Yeezy. The tattoos spell out his new philosophy—there’s no shame in rejecting monogamy, as expectations of monogamy doom sacred love. That may not be what most Christian churches teach but, it's Ye's world in his mind.
Last Song
Gotta Have It
In the first two lines of the song, Kanye says: "'Ello, 'ello, 'ello, hello white America, assassinate my character, Money matrimony, yeah they tryna break the marriage up." Kanye has ran into 2 major altercations with "White America". One was with Mike Myers when he said that George Bush “does not care about black people”. The other was when he went up on stage and took the mic from Taylor Swift because he believe Beyonce deserved the award. When he says break the marriage, he saying he's married to his money and they are trying to break that up. Three lines later he makes reference to the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off when he says : "I think I need a day off, I'mma call Ferris up". Then Jay-Z takes over. Two lines after that he says "Bueller had a Muller but I switched it for a Mille . . Cause I'm richer and prior to this sh*t was moving freebase". The words ‘richer’ and ‘prior’ are a reference to comedian Richard Pryor. He suffered severe burns in 1980 in a mysterious fire that some attributed to his freebasing of cocaine. As it turns out, the fire was actually an unsuccessful suicide attempt. It additionally serves as a references to Jay Z’s drug-dealing days. In addition, Jay Z's use of “richer” reminds us that Mille’s name is also Richard. Piling up the references, Pryor starred in a 1988 movie called Moving, and Mueller Industries is the name of a plumbing company in the movie.
This blog may (will) contain explicit lyrics but they were needed to get my points across.
H.A.M.
The first line says " It was all good just a week ago". You would think he is referring to how things were better last week, but no. He's saying this is how their competition will feel when Watch The Throne drops. He's saying the album will cause havoc throughout the industry. Basically all of the lines are deeper than they seem and I can't cover all of the, but the ones that stand out in my head the most, I will. Moving forward, Kanye West says "And if life's a b**ch then s*ck my d*ck, huh? And I bet she f*cked the whole clique, huh? By the way, you should f*cking quit n*gga" The first sentence of my quote he's referring to the rapper Nas's saying "life is a b....." and he's saying that he wants a . . . from life because apparently that's what b*tches do. Next, he indirectly talks about Amber Rose. She basically smashed the whole Taylor Gang rap group. This is an attack to Amber Rose and Wiz Khalifa because Kanye is basically saying Amber Rose is Wiz Khalifa's sloppy seconds. Then, he says you should quit. He's talking about Wiz Khalifa again, attacking his rapping skills. Later in the same verse he says he's kicking people out like pam. He refers to Pam from the Martin show.
No Church in the Wild
In Jay-Z's verse, he says: "Lies on the lips of a priest, Thanksgiving disguised as a feast." What he's saying is that the church is lying and the real meaning of Thanksgiving is negative but's it's hidden by the positive of a get together feast. The clergy assisted colonists in cheating and killing Native Americans, yet Thanksgiving is meant to celebrate it as a feast of cooperation. In Kanye's verse, he says :"We formed a new religion, No sins as long as there’s permission, And deception is the only felony, So never f*ck nobody without telling me."Explained in keeping with the religious motif of the song, ‘Ye has discovered that, in the words of The Beatles (who were, after all, bigger than Jesus) “All you need is love”. John Lennon has gone on to clarify: "I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that's what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong." These lyrics continue the themes of free will in the hook, as well as the concept developed in Jay’s verse of himself, ‘Ye, and Jesus as the holy trinity (aka God). But about never f*cking anybody without telling ‘Ye, the kind of love that Kanye needs is open, honest, ethical nonmonogamy. He has thrown off the shackles of traditional (or religious) expectations of what a relationship is, declaring that as long as everything either party does is consensual and okayed by their partner (ie there is “permission”) it is not a “sin”. Breaking the trust necessary for this kind of relationship to work is the only serious offense (or “felony”). Later in the same verse he says "Two tattoos one read "No Apologies",The other said "Love is Cursed by Monogamy", It’s something that the pastor don’t preach, It’s something that a teacher can’t teach". A perfect apostle for the Church of Yeezy. The tattoos spell out his new philosophy—there’s no shame in rejecting monogamy, as expectations of monogamy doom sacred love. That may not be what most Christian churches teach but, it's Ye's world in his mind.
Last Song
Gotta Have It
In the first two lines of the song, Kanye says: "'Ello, 'ello, 'ello, hello white America, assassinate my character, Money matrimony, yeah they tryna break the marriage up." Kanye has ran into 2 major altercations with "White America". One was with Mike Myers when he said that George Bush “does not care about black people”. The other was when he went up on stage and took the mic from Taylor Swift because he believe Beyonce deserved the award. When he says break the marriage, he saying he's married to his money and they are trying to break that up. Three lines later he makes reference to the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off when he says : "I think I need a day off, I'mma call Ferris up". Then Jay-Z takes over. Two lines after that he says "Bueller had a Muller but I switched it for a Mille . . Cause I'm richer and prior to this sh*t was moving freebase". The words ‘richer’ and ‘prior’ are a reference to comedian Richard Pryor. He suffered severe burns in 1980 in a mysterious fire that some attributed to his freebasing of cocaine. As it turns out, the fire was actually an unsuccessful suicide attempt. It additionally serves as a references to Jay Z’s drug-dealing days. In addition, Jay Z's use of “richer” reminds us that Mille’s name is also Richard. Piling up the references, Pryor starred in a 1988 movie called Moving, and Mueller Industries is the name of a plumbing company in the movie.
Snowflake Battle
It's the time that brings all of my family and friends near;
Hot chocolate, egg nog and most importantly the snow, what type of gifts are awaiting me, under the tree, I'll never know.
Although it's freezing outside, the cocoa keeps me warm, in chicago, warm is not the norm;
In this city, it's cold all the time, morning to night,
PLUS, it's dark what happened to the sunlight;
In the winter, my birthday arrives;
And it's cold, so I don't have to worry about bees and behives.
You see, summer birthday's are nice, but you don't really get to play in the ice.
Although you can skate in the ice, you have to worry about the sneaky mice.
In the winter is the time that brings everyone together, although it is crazy/hectic weather,
EveryONE comes together as a family, as one, individual spotlight? None.
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