I was dying.

In the book I read as a kid, Chicken Soup for the Soul, I read an entry, which I have seen on social media several times since:

First, I was dying to finish high school and start college. 

And then, I was dying to finish college and start working. 

And then, I was dying to marry and have children. 

And then, I was dying for my children to grow old enough for school. 

And then, I was dying to retire. 

And now, I am dying...

and suddenly, I realize I forgot to live...



-Anonymous 
Submitted by Nicole Zablocki

I was dying to finish high school. I was dying to grow up. I've thought of this book entry many times while in school. Despite the many different parts of high school that I will be glad to be moving on from, there are many things that I was dying to be finished with, that I will dearly miss.

 As school and sports wind down, I am glad to have known this poem. It taught me to value the difficult, rough, and crazy situations we are all in, and to enjoy the experiences. I find it very challanging to not get caught up in wishing my time away on the future. Reading this poem helps me realize how important and valuable living in the moment is.

I'll miss, and hope to carry on, the wonderful friendships that I have made with y'all, and I will think fondly upon all of the great years I have shared with everyone. 

Leaves on top of Grass

Walt's Notebook

Looking through his journal my first impression is that he focused more on getting out his ideas and thoughts and less about organization. A lot of his writing does not stay straight and the words collide into  each other. However, his handwriting is neat and cursive. There is also a lot of words and lines crossed out and replaced with other words and ideas. I especially like the drawings at the end of the notebook because they are relatively simple and rough but it is still very easy to see what he was intending to draw along with being able to see the different emotions present in the drawings that he made. 

After reviewing the notes about what the notebook is actually about I learned that I got some of the stuff I thought right. I noticed the library of congress stamp and new that it wasn't part of the original text. The drawings apparently were not done by Walt himself and he was known to have never drawn. This was something that I did not know before reviewing these notes. These drawings were of Walt and I was unsure of if they were actually of him or someone else during his time period before. I think it is interesting that Walt would have someone else draw and contribute to his personal journal of ideas. I personally would think that someone would like to be secretive and not let others change or edit there own book. 

American dream

 

The American dream is an intangible goal that many people aspire towards.

It is a goal to have, at the end of you life, more than you came in with. For some that may mean that they live in a safer environment than they were raised in. For others it may mean accumulating wealth and being able to provide for their families. Wealth may be money or it may just be having a solid job and a place to live.  For myself the American Dream represents freedom of ideas and of individuals to not be suppressed by their government.  America should be a place where people can be as free as possible to go for whatever dreams and goals they might have. There is a lot of people who are not able to have this privilege and those who live in the United States should be able to freely chose what career opportunity they wish.

Most Americans aspire to be wealthy. It is nearly everyone's aspiration, consciously or subconsciously, to not have to worry about money. However, very few people actually achieve this goal. Poverty in America is not nearly as bad as in other countries. We have many programs run by the government and private organizations and therefor  poverty is much more possible to escape in the United States than in other countries. Also we do not have a social class system and therefor no one is excessively held down by society by where they are born.

I think that in the future the wealth and poverty gap in the United States will continue to grow. As automated machines continue to take the bulk of jobs people will continue to loose their own jobs. This will increase unemployment while the people who own the machines will profit. However on the other hand this may not be such a bad situation. If humans make machines that help our everyday lives and that can help people live well, there may be no purpose in every person to have a job. This concept may be very foreign to most people but eventually the social norm may change to the majority of humans not needing to have a job and unemployment numbers being irreverent. I am not sure if I would want to live in a world where human didn't have the expectation to work but I think it would be interesting to see what it would be like. 

itzulpen galdu

#1:As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. It is written is a passive voice. It describes what he is turned into well- gigantic insect. The sentence is long but describes the situtation fully. 



#2:Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug. This is the shortest opening sentence. It doesn't describe what type of bug. It leaves descriptionary process to the audience. Doesn't say he is in a bed.


#3:When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug. Uses he/his four times, Using 'when' makes it seem like a realistic story and not a once upon a time situation. 

#4:One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin. Gregor's name is in the middle and switched with the dream section. Monstrous vermin is used instead of bug and it doesn't describe the size or type of the bug. 

Word Choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery change the meaning because even changing the order of words slightly can influence the meaning significantly. For example in the second and third examples they describe the bug he is turned into as giant and enormous, respectively. These words have similar meaning however when comparing them in my mind, I imagine a giant bug filling up the bed. However, I imagine an enormous bug breaking the bed, when I read the third sentence. In addition I also imagine a comically large bug after reading the first sentence however because it uses the word insect it narrows the image created in my mind. I imagine something with a hard exterior and maybe with segregated body parts. The descriptive words in the fourth sentence narrow the readers idea of the bug even more. Monstrous vermin institutes the idea that he has been changed into something disgusting and gross to look at. 

These seemingly minute differences impact the reader's experience as a whole greatly. Especially in the situation of the differences in this first sentence, the reader's view is changed for the rest of the book based on the differences on how the main character is described. The fourth sentence for example, takes away the significance of Gregor Samsa slightly because he name is not stated initially. Instead it brings more emphasis to the dream he was having. Translated texts therefore nearly always are going to have a slightly different message because the reader is going to interpret the words differently due to the translation not being able to be precisely the same as the original text. Unfortunately there is no way to avoid this because most texts are translated by different people from who originally wrote the book. This is something that should be noted at the beginning of every translated text. 

freebie

ioc freebie

Coverz.

 

When I first look at the two covers I think of emptiness. The first cover is an abandoned boat tied up to a pole that is in a marshland. The first cover uses a lot of shadows and only one color. It is a golden sunset color but it does not give off the feeling of warmth like the majority of sunsets do. Instead it gives off a harsh feeling that gives the boat a deep shadow. If I had not read this book the cover would make me think the book is about a post-human world. There appears to still be human creations but there is no humans in sight. Also the ominous footsteps near the boat make it appear as though some thing or some event has drawn away people from spending their time in the boat. This image makes me think of the boat that Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy went to go see while Kathy was a carer and Ruth and Tommy were donors. While reading the story I imagined the boat to be a larger boat, like a cruise ship, but even a boat this small could have been an event that would distract the donors from their boring lives. This is from the viewpoint of Kathy, who is also the narrator. This may be her view of the boat when they all went to go visit it. It is from a humans eye level and Kathy said she walked further into the marsh than either Ruth or Tommy. People who would make this book would be the conspirator type. People who would read and like this book would be those interested in alternate possibilities of our world in the future and how human discovery can change the world greatly.





The second cover  also gives the feeling of emptiness. It has roughly drawn on a persons mid section with their organs outlined. This first reminds me of the donations that the clones have to give. It is also significant that the organs or the person is shaded in. This helps to give the impression that the person is only physical. This adds to the idea that many people did not believe that the clones had souls. If I had not read the book and looked at the cover I would most likely think that the book was about a fictional science event that happened and how it impacted people. This would not be that far from the actual plot line of the story. This cover is from the viewpoint of the everyday citizen in the alternate world created looking at a clone. It is said that many people did not think that the clones would have souls, and therefor they were only seen as a bunch of organs without any human substance. This is also similar to the current belief of many people that the animals we raise should not be allowed to roam free and do not have any souls so it doesn't matter how we treat them. I disagree with this current treatment People still today place accessibility over moral virtue and correctness. I think people involved with science and the possible outcomes that result from it would find this book interesting.  

No talking.

https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself#t-5088

During this TED Talk the speaker, Derek Sivers, talks about the mycology of achieving goals. Essentially, he concludes based on other people’s investigation into the topic that, one should not tell others their intention of achieving a goal. When one tells other about their goals they get the satisfaction close to if they were actually going to achieve their goal. However, if someone does not tell other people their goal they do not gain any satisfaction until they have actually finished their goal.

Darek Sivers is an entrepreneur who's main intention during this presentation is to debunk a common misconception. His intended audience is very general. It apply's to nearly everyone, specifically those who tell others their goals. He uses a lot of pop culture references to keep the audience involved and interested in his message. In addition he uses the PowerPoint behind him to help simplify the experiment a physiologist used. 

The speaker of this talk uses ethos. He cites three mycologists that have researched the topic and one who had carried out an experiment. This brings validity to his argument because when the topic is first brought up the audiences natural response is opposite of the speakers argument.

I chose this because I agreed with the title, "Keep your goals to yourself." I usually do not like to inform others about my goals and aspirations. When someone is constantly telling others about what they are going to achieve in life they can appear to be a showoff and often times do not actually achieve the goals that they had wanted to. I agree with the speaker in that people receive a sense of gratification when they tell others their goal, but I think most of the time they do no achieve them because the end result is too difficult to attain, not because they have already received satisfaction.