Lost in The unknown

Break

muffinsincream — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:16:07 +0000

My Memorial Day break was fairly average and not very interesting. The first two days of break I was busy sleeping and eating. I would wake up at 1pm, then have a few meals. At around 4pm I would take a short nap. I was rudely shaken awake at 7pm for dinner. After dinner I would spend some time waking up and eating. Then I would go to bed. On Sunday, I went to my friend’s sweet 16 BBQ with Tyler and Corbin. On Monday, I had a Memorial Day BBQ followed by some CoD4 action in my 90+ degree room. Tuesday I was busy doing random tasks. This concludes my average memorial break.

Motivational Posters

muffinsincream — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:40:56 +0000

I dedicate this post to John.

Outline

muffinsincream — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:26:47 +0000

What is the question you are answering in your own words? What two books share a common theme and how does this theme take affect in real life too?  What is your thesis statement? This sets up the entire paper with your focus and direction. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut should replace The Body of Christopher Creed, by Carol Plum-Ucci, because it is has a more interesting plot which will draw teenagers in.   

BODY PARAGRAPH 1 
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph?
This paragraph will go into detail about the plot and themes of The Body of Christopher Creed. 
What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points?
 A) “Along the way, he discovers how sheltered he and his friends have kept themselves, and how naïve they all are. In the end, they ostracize him as they have with everyone else different from them”  
B) The novel The Body of Christopher Creed has shown the extreme measures some students will go through to escape being bullied and harassed. Using the novel and your own experiences you need to come up with a plan to help prevent and stop bullying.
What example(s) from the book(s) will you use to help prove your points?
Chris had no friends
Chris was bullied 
Torey spends much of the book trying to figure out what happened to Christopher. 

BODY PARAGRAPH 2 
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph? 
This paragraph will explain why The Body of Christopher Creed should be removed from the curriculum. 

What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points? 
A) Community police officers joined forces with second and third year pupils from Carluke High School to highlight anti-bullying messages through drama by performing a play to pupils from local primary schools.  
What example(s) from the book(s) will you use to help prove your points? 
A) previous examples
B) Slaughterhouse Five is a combination of fiction and non-fiction
C) Slaughterhouse Five has complex plot twists involving aliens and time manipulation  

BODY PARAGRAPH 3 
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph? 
This paragraph will deep into plot and themes in the book Slaughterhouse Five.  
What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points? 
A) “The odd combination of fact and fiction forces a question upon the reader: how did the youth who lived through the Dresden bombing grow up to be the man who wrote this book? One reads Slaughterhouse-Five with that question crouched on the brink of one’s awareness. I’m not sure if there’s an answer, but the question certainly heightens the book’s effects.”  
B) “Whether we read Slaughterhouse-Five as a science-fiction novel or a quasi-autobiographical moral statement, we cannot ignore the destructive properties of war, since the catastrophic firebombing of the German town of Dresden during World War II situates all of the other seemingly random events.”  

CONCLUSION 
What should we now understand after reading your paper? Where idea(s) does your paper lead to? 
A) The reader should want to remove The Body of Christopher Creed from the curriculum.
B) The paper should convince the reader that Slaughterhouse Five is a far better book for teens to read.

Socratic Seminar… Again

muffinsincream — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:05:12 +0000

Today we had a Socratic Seminar in class about the book Montana 1948. We just finished the book so the discussion that followed it was for us to share our thoughts on the book. Here are the questions that were asked and the class’ responses.

Was the ending of the book a good ending? Did Frank get what he deserved?
There were two views on this topic. Some people felt that he did not get what he deserved, because that was his personal choice. Others said that he deserved death. Some said that his death put less stress on the family. Wesley never had to do anything about his brother, because Frank died.
Did the ending fit the story?
Generally most of the class felt that the ending did not fit the story. I did not like the ending because it seemed very sudden.
Relation to other books?
This book was compared to The Catcher in The Rye, because Holden and David are both growing up and facing hard issues in the process. I personally don’t think that there is much similarity between the two books.
Was it a good idea for the family to leave?
Some people said that the family should have stayed, because they have lived there for such a long time. Others said they should have moved so that they can start a new life. I personally think that moving was a good idea, because they have a chance to start a new life, where people will not know your background.
Is there any significant for David becoming a history teacher?
We mostly agreed that there was not much significance of this. He probably became a history teacher so that he could break the family’s tradition of Sheriff. He wanted to be his own person, so he did not follow the family tradition.

Notesy Quotesy

muffinsincream — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:02:11 +0000

Source 1:
Source: NYTimes originally (http://www.vonnegutweb.com/sh5/sh5_nytimes.html)
Title: At Last, Kurt Vonnegut’s Famous Dresden Book
Author: The New York Times
Date Published: March 31, 1969
Main Idea: Slaughterhouse 5 is an amazing book that everyone should read.
Summary: Slaughterhouse 5 is an indescribable book. The odd combination of fact and fiction is very intriguing to the reader. The book’s main character is un-stuck in time, which allows him to jump forwards and backwards in time. It is sad and delightful. Some readers will love it while others will hate it.
Quote: The odd combination of fact and fiction forces a question upon the reader: how did the youth who lived through the Dresden bombing grow up to be the man who wrote this book? One reads Slaughterhouse-Five with that question crouched on the brink of one’s awareness. I’m not sure if there’s an answer, but the question certainly heightens the book’s effects.
Question: Which demographic would you generally recommend Slaughterhouse 5 to?

Source 2:
Source: Gale Research (Farmington Hills, MI)
Contemporary Authors,49. (http://www.vonnegutweb.com/sh5/index.html)
Title: In Slaughterhouse Five, — Or the Children’s Crusade
Date Published: 1969
Author: Gale Research
Main Idea: Slaughterhouse Five is a complicated book which is an instant classic.
Summary: The book takes place during the famous Dresden bombing during WWII. Even though the book takes place in a historical era it is mostly fictional. It is partially based on the author’s own life experiences. It deals mainly with the themes of time, death, renewal. It deals with the issues of war and consumerism.
Quote: Slaughterhouse Five is an extraordinary success. It is a book we need to read, and to reread.
Question: What in particular makes Slaughterhouse such a powerful book?

Source 3:
Title: Slaughterhouse Five: Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Author: Sparknotes
Date Published: Unknown
Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/slaughter/themes.html
Main Idea: The main themes in Slaghterhouse Five are the illusion of free will and the destructiveness of war.
Summary: One of the main themes found in Slaughterhouse Five is the destructiveness of war and the illusion of free will. These are repeated throughout the whole book. One of the motifs repeated in the book is the phrase “so it goes”, which is repeated every time someone dies in the book. A final fact to note about the book is that narrator is a character in the book which is provides an interesting perspective on the story.
Quote: Whether we read Slaughterhouse-Five as a science-fiction novel or a quasi-autobiographical moral statement, we cannot ignore the destructive properties of war, since the catastrophic firebombing of the German town of Dresden during World War II situates all of the other seemingly random events. From his swimming lessons at the YMCA to his speeches at the Lions Club to his captivity in Tralfamadore, Billy Pilgrim shifts in and out of the meat locker in Dresden, where he very narrowly survives asphyxiation and incineration in a city where fire is raining from the sky.
Question: How do the themes found in the book affect to the reader?

Source 4:
Title: An overview of The Catcher in the Rye
Author: Robert Bennett
Description: I found this article on the Literary Resource Center. This was basically just an analysis and review on the book. It was critiqued by a professional book critic.
Sources not used following the break.

Source 5:
Title: All-school read unites Waubonsie students
Author: Beth Sneller
Description: The Waubonsie school forced it’s students to read The Body of Christopher Creed as an assignment.

I wish I was an Octagon or How to Change the World with 3 Paragraphs

muffinsincream — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:51:18 +0000

Differences between the two paragraphs: The main difference between the two paragraphs is that for the essay paragraph I had to only use the book and my memory(not so good). For the research paragraph however, I was allowed to use a handout as a source for information. The main topic for the two paragraphs was different as well.

Essay:
Sibling Rivalry is by far one of the most important themes in Montana 1948. It is something that occurs in almost every family with multiple children. Such is the case in Montana 1948, where the Hayden brothers struggle to compete for their father’s love. Both of the brothers desperately crave recognition and attention from their father, but Wesley never seems to get much of either. It is apparent that their father prefers Frank, as he is the more successful and handsome of the two sons. Wesley seems to be hurt by this and acts bitter at times because of his jealous of his brother. Wesley is tired of living in his brother’s shadow.

Research:

Sibling rivalry exists in almost every family with multiple children; it is an indisputable fact of life. Sibling rivalry is caused when children are convinced that their parents have favorites and they try to compete to be the favorite. There are many ways for siblings to deal with their rivalry; unfortunately, no attempt is made to end the sibling rivalry in the book. One method to deal with sibling rivalry is to use your sibling’s success to motivate yourself to strive for your own success (Henry, 2008). Wesley and Frank should have tried to use this method to deal with their rivalry, because they will have to live with each other.

Bibliography

muffinsincream — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:28:05 +0000

Harwell, Todd S., Kelly R. Moore, and Michael R. Spence. “Physical Violence, Intimate Paretner Violence, and Emotional Abuse Among Adult American Indian Men and Women in Montana.” Science Direct. 2003. Science Direct. 29 Apr. 2008.

Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services did a study on violence amongst Native Americans. The study was done in 2001 with random participants. They interviewed people from seven reservations and discovered that a high amount of the participants were either physically or emotionally abused.

Guilt?

muffinsincream — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:38:44 +0000

Have you ever set a small meadow on fire? Burn down an orphanage? Trip a sickly child? Besides the immense satisfaction rewarded by these actions, the few weak might experience a feeling many humans refer to as “guilt”. According to Dictionary.com, guilt is “a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime, wrong, etc., whether real or imagined”. But how does it feel? I shouldn’t need to ask this question, any human being knows what guilt entails, but what about our robotic brethren? How do we explain guilt to one, which has no heart?

I fortunately have never felt this “guilt”. My cold robotic heart sees guilt as a handicap, a crutch for the feeble. People often say, “How do not feel anything after you murder someone?” to which I promptly respond with my healing shiv. If a god had wanted fleshbags to live, they would have not made humans so fragile, a delicate snowflake filled with blood.

In the play Macbeth, the two main characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are too weak. They fall victim to their human hearts and feel guilt for their betrayal of their king. Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth for example begins to have vivid nightmares. Macbeth also begins acting like a magical Columbian. He orders his best friend and his son to be killed, personally what I believe to be a brilliant move. Later like any good paintsniffer sees visions of those who he had killed for his own selfish ambitions.

Feminists Now and Then

muffinsincream — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:25:27 +0000

This week’s blog post is about an important topic that affects 50% of the population; that topic is feminism. We spent all week examining what feminism is and how it relates to us today. We also covered feminism as it relates to women in Shakespeare’s era. Today feminists are fighting for equal pay and advancement opportunities. This is not as much of an issue as it used to be, but women still get paid less by some employers and they still do not have the same advancement opportunities. Feminists also are looking to promote role models for little girls to aspire to. Most feminists will agree that Paris Hilton is a terrible example of what a role model should be. Some say that she is actually smart, but that still would not make her a better role model. She is a bad role model, because of her famed world renowned sexual displays. Finding a good role model is hard, because of people like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears who have lived an easy spoiled life. These people are always in the public’s eye and often seem to be promoting their smug spoiled lifestyle.

Lady Macbeth throughout the course of the play, displays signs that she is clearly a feminist. The traditional role of a queen is a passive one, one who observes but does not rule. Lady Macbeth, did not like to follow the social constraints of the day though. She held great strength for a woman in her time, by controlling her husband, Macbeth. She was able to convince her husband to do whatever she wanted. When she wanted more power she convinced him to kill his friend, King Duncan. I would not consider her a good role model though, because rather than sharing power equally with her husband, she controls him like one controls a dog. She abuses her ill-gotten power and rather than using it for good, she instead uses it to stab others in the back. In conclusion, Lady Macbeth is a terrible feminist role model, and she cannot be trusted with any power whatsoever.

Socratic Seminar #1

muffinsincream — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:40:38 +0000

It’s that time again… Socratic Seminar time!!! Sorry, I just get so enthused during my writings. Anyway, the seminar started the same way it always does, with my classmates answering the simple question, “How do you like the book so far?” In general most of the class seemed to like the plot in the book, but many were put off by Shakespeare’s use of old english and unique writing style. Someone in the class though made a good point in stating that as we read more of the book, we may start to understand the writing better. We then moved to harder questions about feminism and who are strong feminist role models. Most of the class felt that Lady Macbeth was a strong feminist role model. Despite having little power herself, she was able to control her husband, Macbeth, who held a lot of power. She had lots of strength and determination, which are two qualities of a good role model. We also talked about whether or not Paris Hilton could be seen as a feminist role model. Apparently, the renowned slut had some qualities of a good role model (reckless driving and going clubbing panty-less are not some of them). The next part of the Socratic Seminar was spent discussing whether or not it is morally just for women to use sexuality to get ahead. Many argued that it is not a just way to gain power. Some argued that this is an ability given to women at birth akin to men’s muscular strength. I personally believe that it is morally unjust for women to use their sexuality to get ahead, unless men are able to move up in life by physically beating the competition.