Winter Break???? More like winter @%$#@

Over my winter break I plan to do many things. First of all I'm going to play ALOT of Halo Reach and play Team Swat until like 5 am every day then sleep in until about noon. I am also going to go and hang with my friends and do stuff like cause shenanigans and look/laugh at people and probably talk about how we are better than everybody then have a long political talk and eventually end up at the terms that Mitch Mcconnal and Michel Steele are the roots of all evil. I am also going to have christmas with the family like usual and probably end up knocking the Christmas tree over after my Aunt takes a swing at my grandma, my uncle pulls knife on my cousin and the drunk, Mexican, Santa Clause steals the presents from under the tree, wow i love the holidays :). Then for New Years I am going to go to my friend Colton's house play alot of
Xbox ($%^*& $#@! ^&*& ( (*$! &%$#@@* %$#@@@& &%^$) and probably not sleep until the New Year.

Thirteen ways to see a blackbird

I picked thirteen ways to see a blackbird. it pertains to my life because it is all about seeing things in many different ways which i do on a daily basis. This poem speaks to me because it is very abstract, and very meaningful because it seems as igf the blackbird almost rules the writers conscience and thats what he was going for.

Poetry Out Loud?!?!?!?!?!?!?! More like Poetry Out Proud

America

Riprap

Her Kind

“Alone”

 Cool Tombs

1.I liked aloe by Edgar Allen Poe, I believe this poem was great because it truly imbibed the spirit of being alone.

2 Cool Tombs is one I really didn’t like ecause it just didn’t seem to have any real meaning to it.

3.I would chose “Alone” because it really spoke to me

4. I fell like I conntected with alone because we’ve all had those feelings of lonliness.

Extra credit blog.

Ryan Dietz

The winner by Knock Out....SELF RELIANCE!

As far as i am concerned neither Nature or Self Reliance relate to my life very much, but the one that has even some relation is Self Reliance. The only reason that it does at all relate is because it is m own personal belief that it is better to rely on yourself than it is on others. Ever since i was very small my father has been a single parent, and when he was off at work i had to learn to cook, clean and do alot for myself. I'm not saying that i do everything for myself because if I did I would be lying, but if it came down to it i could rely on myself with the skills i have learned.
The reason Nature doesn't relate to my life, really at all, is because I  disagree with most of what Emerson says. I don't believe that there is one shared soul, i believe that we each have an individual one. I don't believe that people are a part of nature because i think that nature is just a thing left here to use to our disposal, to build things and hunt for food. It seems even if i am wrong and nature is sacred that it doesn't matter because it is being all ruined anyways.

Essay's a-ok

Going into high school the thing i dreaded most was to have to do essays. But i soon found out that really they wern't that bad and that if you just do a little bit of preparation just by thinking about what your going to write the words flow easy as anything. The hardest thing about essays is taking something and reading it then putting it into words. but there is a very easy way around it thats actually doing the work, I cannot tell you how many times I've seen people try to do an essay without reading what they were supposed to and expecting it to work out. 

My literary analysis skills have improved by 10 fold since i have entered high school and i have one person to thank for this, Mr. Salme my 9th grade English teacher. In his class we had an assignment where he taught us how to write a 5 part paragraph and how to use commentary and concrete details then had us write about To Kill a Mocking Bird and it really helped with literary analysis because it made me think about everything that goes into writing about reading.  

Are you master of your domain?

When i began to think about this topic only one trial came to mind the trial of Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Elaine Benes and Cozmo Kramer against the state of Massachusetts. It all began when NBC called Jerry Seinfeld and told him that they would like to re-up his pilot that George Costanza and him had proposed to the company some years earlier that was going to be aired until  Russell Dowripple, the head of the company went on hiatus after Elaine Benes wouldn't return his calls, and was just left sitting on the Shelf. NBC wanted to make up for leaving the pilot on the shelf for so long, so they told them that they could use a private jet to fly anywhere in the world to go on a vacation. So after much collaboration the gang decided to go to Paris for their vacation, and about halfway through their flight Cozmo Kramer began to jump wildly up and down and smacked his ear repeatedly trying to get water out of it and fell into the cockpit causing technical difficulty's and the plane began to go down but eventually regained control and had to land in  Latham, Massachusetts where the pilot of the plane told the gang it would be a while and to go get a "bite to eat" and so they went. When they were almost to the restaurant a man was mugged right across the street from them and they did nothing to help but after the man that was mugged alerted the authority's and told them that the gang didn't help they were apprehended by the police for breaking the good semaritain law and they were sent to jail. So the gang called their lawyer Jackie Chiles and they were set to go trial against the state of Massachusetts.
As the trial began the honorable judge Vandelay approached the bench and Jackie Chiles made his opening statement with his main argument that they were innocent bystanders and there is no such thing as a guilty bystander and that's what it means to be an American that you don't have to help anybody if you don't want to. So the prosecuter calls the man that was mugged to the stand one mister  Matt Vogel and he told them about the tape that Cozmo Kramer was taking of the crime and they showed it in the court, Which should have not been showed because they were never told that they had the tape it. So next the prosecution called Mabel Choate to the stand and this was also unfair in the court proceedings because she was not even present at the time of the event, but the prosecutions    argument was that they were trying to establish that this was not merely an isolated incident. It was part of a pattern of anti-social behavior that's been going on for years, So Judge Vandelay let it stand and Choate explaind how Mr. Seinfeld had stole her marble rye from schnitzers bakery some years earlier. Then the Prosecution called Marla Penny to the stand the person that the gang referred to as the "Virgin" and she explained how the gang had a contest some years earlier to see who could go longest without well you know. this was also very unfair because she was not present at the incident. Next they called Donald Sanger to the stand who was "The Bubble Boy" and he explained how George Costanza popped his bubble over a game of Trivial Pursuit and he almost died, but once again he was not there at the time of the incident. Then they called the lady that Mr. Kramer gave a defective wheel chair too (no name given) and she explained how Mr. Costanza parked in a handicap spot and and she ended up breaking her wheelchair and Mr. Kramer gave her a defective one that almost killed her. Then they called Dr. Wilcox the doctor on call the night of Susan Ross's, George Costanza's former fiancée , death and explained how Mr. Costanza's reaction was restrained jubilation and had no sorrow at all about his Fiancée dying. Then they called Sidra Holland, Jerry Seinfeld's former girlfriend, to the stand and she explained how Mr. Seinfeld sent Elaine Benes into the sauna to see if "they were real" which actually in fact he had not done. Then they called Bookman the library cop to the stand and he explained how Mr.Seinfeld had a book delinquency for over 25 years. Then they called one of Mr. Costanza's former girlfriends to the stand and she explained how he had pushed over women and children to get out of the way of a fire. Then they called a security guard of the Grand Valley Shopping Mall and he explained how he caught Mr. Seinfeld and Mr. Costanza Urinating in the parking garage each about 30 mins apart and how Mr. Seinfeld lied about having Uromycitisis and if he held it in he would die. Then their final Character Witness was Yev Kassem who was referred to as "The Soup Nazi" and he explained how Ms. Benes had stolen all of his recepies and had them published ruining his business and he had to move to Argentina and live in seclusion. So the jury went out and it didn't take long to prove them guilty giving them a year in prison. This trial was completely unfair because everyone of the prosecutions witnesses but one was not even there at the time of the crime so their testimony's were  irrelevant, irrational, and inconsequential but ultimately led to their convictions. This is like The Crucible because even though some of the girls were not allegedly affected but the spirits of the witches in Salem what they did in court still held huge in court toward the convictions of the alleged witch's. 

The crucible? What is it good for?

There are many ways this play can relate to all the people but really in only a few for every individual. The way that the crucible relates to me is through Abigail and the other girls when they would bat their eyes and tell the courts how somebody was a witch and they believed them really without a doubt is like when a girl in class does something like tell me "F*** off" and with a bat of the eyes they get out of it. I think this worked because it is just common perception that girls are totally innocent and don't do anything wrong like lie in both cases. 

Another way the crucible relates to my life also has to do with Abigail, when she shows that she has leverage over John Proctor and makes him all but bow to her every whim and not even call her out for being a fraud. This relates to my life because just like anybody with any leverage on you can and will use it to get what they want even me, just like when i knew something about a friend that he didn't want anybody to know i got him to tell me something i wanted to know, even though i would have never actually told anybody i used it to my advantage to get what i wanted. I believe that the Crucible truly shows the evil inside people that can come out when they are afraid that the truth can come out no matter what it might be, Practicing witchcraft or having a crush on a girl and i'm excited to see what else is going to happen in this book.

What does it mean to be an American?

What does it really mean to be an American? the tradition sense of the saying is apple pie, baseball, Toyota and freedom and maybe it used to be but since I was born every one of these things has been trashed in their literal and symbolic meaning. Is freedom a terror alert level over orange? Is freedom being frisked every time you go to the airport and is freedom not even being able to get a birth certificate without 14 hours worth of paperwork and a background check? The bottom line is that all of these things are just the way of the government of putting fear into all of our hearts and souls through bad things that have happened in the past and making people feel a false sense of security while they are taking away the little liberty's that we take for granted, but when will it stop? When we have to have a passport to go state to state? Or when we need a background check to check out a library book? It doesn't seem that there will be an end until the American people start to realize that all of their rights are slowly being taken away. Apple pie used to mean everything that is good about america but know it's just roped into the whole obesity hysteria and now its not even an enjoyable treat without the threat of heart disease being shoved down your throat. Baseball the great american past time has been demolished by steroids and every player wanting to make 10 million dollars a year and won't play if they can't get it, because people have lost the drive that they used to have and their gas tank has changed from love of the game to money and its tarnishing the good name of what it means. Finally Toyota used to embody the spirit of America but know all of that spirit is replaced by the hysteria of high gas prices and global warming it makes me sad to think that through all of these fear tactic that are used in the news and in mass media that one day soon America won't be the world power anymore and China will take that throne and communism will be the new democracy, and i have no doubt that one day maybe not even in my lifetime it will happen because every world power ever has been dethroned. 

We as people have many things in common a love for reality shows and the need for companionship and even  letting people fill all of our heads with conjecture and hearsay that doesn't have any real in it but people still believe it because of blind stereotypes, like when it came out that "Barock Obama is a Muslim" even though there's no proof and he says that he is a Cristian people just can't seem to take him at his word and it just doesn't make sense . 

If people could just learn to think for themselves then maybe America can turn out of this downturn it's in but if they can't and just listen to what Joe Republican or Sally Democrat tells you what to do and don't listen to the issues for yourself my friends America is in a bad bad way.