Hey! This is your last blog post of the semester, so make it count!
Please select one entry from your Writer's Notebook from the fall semester, and re-write it here as a comment. You may extend the entry or heavily revise it--I just want you to share something you feel proud of or interested in from the semester.
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ReplyDelete"Death is very like the single best invention of life".
ReplyDeleteEvery living person receives the miracle of life. For ones life to end is the best invention for many reasons. If no one died, then no one would want take advantage of their life because it would never end. Having death awaiting at the end of life, almost puts a type of pressure on people to be successful and accomplished in a certain amount of time. Inventors probably would not have felt the need to make inventions if they knew that they had an everlasting amount of time. Without death, the world would be completely different from what it is today.
Prompt: Gravity.
ReplyDeleteGravity is -32ft/sec^2 --- according to Mr. Vischak. Or at least, on Earth, gravity is that number.
Gravity is also a good joke teachers make. Yesterday, when someone's calculator fell on he ground, Mr. Vischak just said, "Oh hey, gravity." That reminded me of a similar situation I had back in 8th grade. In my 8th grade English class with Mr. Peden, whenever any object fell to the floor, he would say "gravity" and then do his "evil laugh".
Gravity can also be what holds us to the Earth. It's the pull from other masses of objects. Without it, we would float around the Earth, solar system, and galaxy! But as cool and quixotic zero-gravity sounds, without gravity to hold us down, we would have tons of problems. I recently had to do research this summer over the possibilities of moon colonization (it was for debate - the resolution is about space policy). Zero gravity would mean we would have a hard time showering, have a hard time exercising our muscles to keep in shape, and have a hard time doing simple tasks, such as sleeping without floating away and hitting something.
Gravity can be interpreted as the seriousness, or sobriety, of a situation.
But none the less, gravity is many things, even though it just seems like simple word.
Groups I am a part of:
ReplyDeleteMale
Teenager
Stephens
White
Kinkaid
Student
Football
Baseball
Fishing
Driving
Italian
Catholic
Houston Country Club
American
Texan
Houstonian
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ReplyDelete"Hell is other people"- Jean-Paul Sartre
ReplyDeleteAt first, I agreed with this statement. After all, I am annoyed more often by other people than myself. However, after a few minutes of consideration, I changed my mind. First, hell is a strong word. People are often annoying, but hell signifies something more drastic than what I would have said. Although people can be irritating sometimes, (I can also), human interaction is what makes our lives interesting. Without other people I would be much more bored, and my life definitely wouldn't be as interesting.
1 month later I still agree with what I wrote before
"Death is very likely the single invention of life."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what this means. Something that is known and acknowledged by everyone is that with life, there is death. Death makes life more exciting. If you lived on earth forever then it would take some of the excitement out of life. People who live like it could be their last day are the type of people that are open to things and challenges. Everyone deals with death, everyone knows of someone who is dead. It's extremely sad, but it's something no one can avoid. It's a concept that everyone relates to and draws people together, "death is a destination we all share."
Plagiarism vs. Remixing
ReplyDeleteI think that plagiarizing and remixing are different. Even though you are taking somebody else’s work and calling it your own, you are using it in a new and different way. It is like a found art project, you take items from different places and compile them into a new project. This is not plagiarism, all you are doing is creating a mash-up of different things, using them in a way they were not originally used in.
Key on a Keychain:
ReplyDeleteIts copper colored, rusted form hung from the silver Grand Canyon keychain. Its edges were once sharp, but time had worn and blackened them. He doesn't know where it leads or what it unlocks; yet he holds on to it. It was the only remnant after the fire on that fateful day. He keeps it close to him at all times, and when he gets lonely he presses it to his palm, feeling the cool metal enveloped by his coarse hand. He thinks about all he had, the life he lived, and the people he knew back then. However, after a few moments, he slips the key back onto the keychain, listening for the satisfying clink as it snaps into place. He looks at it, virtually indiscernible among the sea of keys, the key to his apartment, the key to his old Chevy, the keys to his office, the keys to his safe, the key to his vacant studio. Yet the most important key is just one out of the many.
-What I would be doing if I wasn’t here right now
ReplyDeleteProbably working on my guitar song I had created yesterday
- Something unexpected that happened recently: My cousins got me sick
-Some complex theory was thinking about:
ON how to create energy using the concept of regenerative braking using some various facts with friction
Making everything true: Sitting there, I strum the chords on my beautiful guitar. I sit there asking myself whether or not the song will sound better with a hammer on the C or D fret.. After the chords I hesitantly move on to my favorite part. I could even say that the part is quite complex, yet it generates a feeling of joy when you hear each note come into play. The moment I hear it, played by my own hand, my heart pumps faster and faster and I audaciously attempt to play the part even faster, to a point where the segment still has a joyful and laid back sound. Just me and my pleasant guitar, rolling through the melodies at hand. Cough. God damn it. I remembered, I am sick and congested. My piece has been turned into a jumbled mess by that draconian cough. I try to speak for no apparent reason but I am stopped. It’s the same hoarse voice. Ahhhh, that voice which makes your voice lower but takes away the emotion hidden amongst the words. I try to proceed but I can’t. As I slide my fingers amongst the strings to play the higher and lower notes, the friction burns the tip of my fingers. As the friction stops me, I am hurtled forward into the day. My dad interrupts me. He says, “ Selim, you need a haircut, want to go for a ride in the car?” I know what he means. It’s that excuse to use the sports car. Without time given to think, the engine bellowed with a fearsome roar, Thrusting the car from 35 to 80 within seconds, I feel my face departing the rest of my body. I am excited and overjoyed by the noise. After the haircut, I began to think of the consequences at those speeds. Especially braking. On our way to the house I ask my dad to go from 35 miles per hour to a complete stop by braking as hard as he can. Without a pause, I am lunged forward and I begin to hear a quick tire crunch and then a stop. I begin to think of all the that kinetic energy being converted into heat. Might as well take the energy and convert it to electrical energy I thought. The brakes create a lot of fiction on the discs, and by using a conductive plate clamped with the breaks, the electrical energy could be generated by just the touch on the brakes. I guess that just might work.
Piracy of copyrighted material is a controversial issue. This video shows large media corporations scaring people with the threat of fines and jail time if they pirate material. The company tried to convince people that they couldn't even remix the copyrighted material while the fact of the matter is that it is perfectly legal to do so. Creative license allows for copyrighted material to be remixed as long as it is cited, but that company tried to scare people so much that they didn't bother looking up copyright law.
ReplyDeleteResponsibility
ReplyDeleteI’m responsible for getting good grades, doing my work, and understanding and studying the information given to me in class. I’m responsible for being the best student I can be.
I’m responsible for cleaning the house; from washing dishes to vacuuming and ridding the house of dust.
I’m responsible for feeding my neighbor’s starving cats, a responsibility that shouldn’t be mine, but one that I willingly accepted out of love for those cats.
I’m responsible for trying to become like my brother: smart, understanding, and visibly more responsible as each day passes. It feels like my responsibility is to become a younger, female version of him.
I’m responsible for growing up “like a proper young lady,” acting my age, and keeping my manners intact.
Sometimes I wish I was younger, when the responsibilities weren’t weighing down on me like a mountain...
It is ok to lie if it prevents someone from being hurt. Aside from that, lying is not ok as trust is the foundation of all relationships. If someone lies to you, that undermines the foundation, and the prospect of a successful relationship with them disappears.
ReplyDelete"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered."
ReplyDelete-Steve Jobbs
This quote really appeals to me for some reason. I think it means that with the thought of death always looming over your head, you should be forced to live each day to the fullest without any regrets. It could also mean that because death is such a heavy subject matter, the little awkward moments or mistakes in every day life that seem like such a big deal at the time, really aren't even worth dwelling over.
Brain Drain-
ReplyDelete"Theres only us/theres only this/ forget regret/ or life is yours to miss/ no other road/no other way/ no day but today/" -RENT (The musical)
This song came on the radio the other morning. "Life Support" is one of my favorite songs from RENT, which is one of my favorites in the entire realm of musicals. Its not a very complicated song, nor is it particularly verbose. However, the song has such a powerful message that the writer, Jonathan Larson, chose to incorporate this snippet of music and lyrics into songs later on in the show. On a sad note, Larson died the day before opening night and never got to see his most valuable work performed for the public. His message of forgetting yesterday and living in today lives on in his music and corresponding musical. Whenever I hear this song, I am reminded to forget my regrets and my worries and live in today.
"Death is very like the single best invention of life".
ReplyDeleteDeath makes life exciting. As depressing as it might sound, everyone is going to die sooner or later. If we didnt have death, what would are inspiration be? Because death happens to us all, we try to make the best out of the time we have here on earth. And because of death, many people who "treat each day as if its their last". The people who do that are the people that are successful. You are also happier if you do treat each day as if its your last. Death is something that happens to us all. Most people are scared of death. We shouldnt be worrying about something that is going to happen when we could be enjoying ourselves and making the best life we possibly can.
Ernest Hemingway Quote: "For Sale: Baby shoes. Never Worn."
ReplyDeleteThe quote is very thought provoking and made me think very hard. I never realized that only six words could obtain such a deep meaning. Tension and mystery combined make this a pensive quote. From the given information we can deduce that there are baby shoes for sale that were never worn because the baby died and therefore never had a chance to wear them. These words make the quote interesting and suspenseful. When the time came for the students to think of their own, this is what I came up with:
" Beverly Kearney: Back on Track."
This was about the time when we had the speaker "Bev" (a.k.a. Beverly Kearney) come and enlighten the student body with her witty remarks, advice and her touching life story. My quote is a play off of her life story because she is a track coach at UT and how she recovered after her tragic car accident.
This is my response to the Returning Home (video?) that we did on August 31:
ReplyDeleteAs Calvin from Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes" one said, "Mom, how does soldiers shooting each other solve the world's problems?" His mom can't find a good answer to give him, and neither could most people. The fact is that in the end, the fighting doesn't solve any problems permanently. We can fight all we want, but strength and money can't determine what is just and morally right. Obviously people will disagree, and even if they actually discuss the problem civilly (which is rare), fighting seems to be inevitable in the world we live in. But when diplomacy is used to its greatest extent, such as when heavy economic sanctions are put in place, things can work out. Unfortunately, many people are too hard headed to try to have a legitimate discussion about the issue and decide to fight it out. This is why we have millions of people, including innocent ones who disagree with war and conflict, dying, getting mental disorders like PTSD, and losing limbs. Does the end really justify the means?
A response to the list of random things with which we had to come up with a story: (September 27)
ReplyDeleteCast off like last-season's wardrobe. Discarded on the floor like just another t-shirt which she had shimmied out of while waiting for the water to warm. Hidden between a pile of dusty pictures and a textbook too heavy to bring to class.My placement might appear careless to the normal passerby, but I know better.
She hadn't dared to touch me since that night, afraid to disrupt my magic. I shined with the glitter of her fallen eye shadow and the new opportunities that September night incited. The sweet pink of her perfume lost in the folds of my cotton. The strength of the Old Spice from that boy she spent too much time with. She furtively glances at me, sighs, and grabs someone else from inside the drawer. We share a secret; some things are meant to stay dirty.
10/7 "What is the most important rule you live by?"
ReplyDeleteThat's easy: my 30 year rule. I don't know who taught it to me but I started around the 8th grade. I was stressing out over my high school applications and I guess I realized that it wasn't worth it. I try to only extensively worry myself over things that will matter when I'm 30. So break ups, petty fights with friends, disagreements with my sister- I chose not to let these get to me. Ever. I especially use this in school. Yes you should study hard so you can be successful in life, but make sure to let your hair down every once in a while.
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ReplyDelete"Death is very likely the single best invention of Life"
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty depressing quote but I guess it could be true for some people. I can picture some really philosophical old guy saying this like 100 years ago because it seems like something from a long time ago. It also seems like something a writer would say, saying that a lot of them are really depressed a lot of the time. Death isn't actually an invention though and "invention of life" would indicate that life invented it...which would indicate life was alive or an animate object. Another thing is that life is capitalized on the "L" which indicates it's a name of, for example, a person. I think the invention part is more of a metaphor, which is the other reason I think this was a writer or philosopher.
I can really picture Lucas in One Tree Hill saying this. He always starts and ends the episodes in a narration saying some depressing quote that relates to that nights episode. The episode this would be in is probably if like Dan were planning to kill himself or something, after his guilt from killing Keith( as if he really felt guilt). I'm sure this actually has been in one of the episodes, because it does sound kind of familiar. I LOVE One Tree Hill and if that quote was in it, it would make me really like the quote too.
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ReplyDelete"Guilt"
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, I stole a little funny purple animal to from Petco. I had gone there earlier for dog food for my pet border collie, and came out a criminal. My dad was searching intently through the food bag isles while I ventured off to the doggie toys. Then I saw the toy, furry and plushy. I decided that I wanted to get it. I asked my dad if I could have it, but of course he told me immediately no. So right when he turned the corner, I decided that I was going to take it. I took the little animal and stuffed it in my pocket and followed my dad. We went to the register checked out and got in the car. On the way home I started feeling guilty. I got a knot in my stomach knowing that I stole something. After another minute I told my dad. He was extremely disappointed, but respected the fact that I was honest. He drove me back to the store, and then we returned it with no punishment. That was the first feeling of guilt I ever had.
The human condition is the condition of being human. This entails many feelings, emotions and connections. We feel joy, sadness and all the emotions in between. We all have a fear of the dark; the unknown; the unexpected, even it does not obviously manifest itself.Being human, we all have experienced and will experience losses. We all develop our own methods of dealing with this emotion. To be a human is to be part of a community, a group that works together for a common good. Being human is something only we, on earth, can experience, and we all experience it differently.
ReplyDeleteCourage is a principal value of my life. I use courage to get through everyday. It gives me the ability to stand up for what's right and defend myself from people that hurt me. In other words, courage means strength. The physical strength to not cry when you fall down and the mental strength to rise above someone's unkind attitude towards you. These things define courage, they define ME.
ReplyDelete(I thought this posted last week but I think my internet in Atlanta wasn't working right.)
ReplyDeleteBrain Drain
During this brain drain I got an idea for a new book. It's about how people interpret their own death as the end of the world, and living in this mostly destroyed world acts as a purgatory until some sort of conclusion is reached about whether or not they've lived a good life. So this is the first half page of it...
The world ended, well at least for the most part, at 7:10, December 2021. I remember looking up at a blood red sky as the clouds turned dark and shriveled like burnt marsh mellows. After that, things start to get blurry. Honestly, my brain probably should remember more, but the memories must have just been too horrible for my brain to keep. The fact that I forgot most of what happened remains one of the few things I’m grateful for.
The only thing I do remember is how meteors pounded into the earth and shook the ground beneath me. Each step my heartbeat quickened in my chest as I waited for a something to fall out of the sky and take me out too. Black dust clouded my vision to the point where I couldn’t even see. But the worst part was the screaming. Shrills of pain-filled cries pierced my eardrums until it became the only sound I could even imagine.
I ran. I ran through that hell for two long hours just thinking live, live, live over and over again as my feet pounded into the dying earth. I ran like everyone else, thinking maybe if I could just move fast enough, maybe if I could just move my feet quick enough, I’d be saved from the encompassing darkness. But there came a time where a saw a child, a little boy, dead under a rock, and it all became too much. I studied his small, ghost white, lifeless hand barely coming out from the rock, and I stopped running. That was when I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore; I wanted to die too.
But none of that matters. The only thing that matters is that 22 people survived, and I’m one of them.
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ReplyDelete