Friday, December 7, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Revision.
Upon first glance through the first 5 pages or so, I hated the dry syntax. It's as if a love sick girl was writing fan fiction from the 1890's. I had yet to see how this pertained to anything we would need to learn about revision.
However, upon later reading she talks about how the work you create sounds foreign, even alien, when reading it again. That we must separate ourselves from the oddity of our own writing, and make the edits that are logical and without any sort of relativity or partial judgement to the paper. For if we do, we are harming ourselves as writers. And it's to this contention that she derives the point of what revision is. How can we remain impartial but change partial pieces of our paper? Does a whole new draft constitute it's own existence by "improving" off of a previous?
In my opinion an artist must be true to himself, for when his art is put up for the world to see he will reap criticism regardless of how flawless the product. As long as the artist remains steadfast, and stands for what he believes in, never faltering on his own creation's ability, will he ever be a true artist. Each public work is a design that cannot be undone once published. To revise or redo or redraft in my opinion only waters down the original message, the original feelings and emotions poured into the paper or video or picture or art, and weakens what the you at that moment felt and created.
As for sake of academia, revision and redrafting in necessary. Most of us didn't come to school to be artists and have to suffer with this sort of repetition. Maybe it is for the best and creates a more scholarly paper, but who am I to pass judgement as more than a normal student in a general writing class.
However, upon later reading she talks about how the work you create sounds foreign, even alien, when reading it again. That we must separate ourselves from the oddity of our own writing, and make the edits that are logical and without any sort of relativity or partial judgement to the paper. For if we do, we are harming ourselves as writers. And it's to this contention that she derives the point of what revision is. How can we remain impartial but change partial pieces of our paper? Does a whole new draft constitute it's own existence by "improving" off of a previous?
In my opinion an artist must be true to himself, for when his art is put up for the world to see he will reap criticism regardless of how flawless the product. As long as the artist remains steadfast, and stands for what he believes in, never faltering on his own creation's ability, will he ever be a true artist. Each public work is a design that cannot be undone once published. To revise or redo or redraft in my opinion only waters down the original message, the original feelings and emotions poured into the paper or video or picture or art, and weakens what the you at that moment felt and created.
As for sake of academia, revision and redrafting in necessary. Most of us didn't come to school to be artists and have to suffer with this sort of repetition. Maybe it is for the best and creates a more scholarly paper, but who am I to pass judgement as more than a normal student in a general writing class.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The election and the fifth of november.
Two very important dates came up in the past few days. The election is important for obvious reasons. However no one knew what happened on the fifth of november or its significance.
Remember remember the fifth of November,
The gun powder treason and plot.
I see no reason,
the gun powder treason,
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes Day (the fifth of november) is a holiday about the early rebellion against unjust government. This is important because of internet group Anonymous has used it as a rally cap for activists around the world to unify under. Some of the things they did on this Guy Fawkes day is they marched on parliment like in the movie V for Vendetta. They also brought down online banking site Paypal. This was all in an attempt to gain recognition across the world for the political gains. And honestly it worked, wether or not you agree with the group, theyre amassing power.
Remember remember the fifth of November,
The gun powder treason and plot.
I see no reason,
the gun powder treason,
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes Day (the fifth of november) is a holiday about the early rebellion against unjust government. This is important because of internet group Anonymous has used it as a rally cap for activists around the world to unify under. Some of the things they did on this Guy Fawkes day is they marched on parliment like in the movie V for Vendetta. They also brought down online banking site Paypal. This was all in an attempt to gain recognition across the world for the political gains. And honestly it worked, wether or not you agree with the group, theyre amassing power.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Shake Weights: The funniest thing to happen since puns
Honestly the funniest thing since the South Park episode where they used the shake weight. I laughed for a solid 5 minutes after seeing this. But theres one thing the marketing genius who made this ad remembered: Sex sells.
Oh sex doesn't sell you say? Go to literally any other ad about personal well being and try to not find a sexual induendo. Joke is you can't, because secretly your inner 12 year old is laughing so hard he just wet his pants.
This walks the path between sex selling and next-to-prostitution so closely I can almost gaurentee that at least 5% of shake weights income have been made by college guys buying this either for "the lols" or for a "significant other they want to get in shape." The shake weight seems like it'd be a pledge thing for the "I pretened to have a sense of humor" frat. But its obvious that this is not meant for girls, I would hate to see the work out machine where they have a model trying to sell a piece of work out equipment to a bunch of women using a sexual induenedo as out there as this one.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
Conferences
I think the conference was a very good experience. I feel like I am very scattered when it comes to my paper, and my ideas and such are spread around a lot. But the conference made my paper get more concise and I know what to hone my paper in on now. I know i need to make my paper more concise and in turn it will completely change my thesis.
I have no problems speaking in front of groups if I'm reading something, granted my reading outloud abilities are they best, so the conference wasn't that big of a problem for me.
I do feel like my topic is far too contriversial though, but I mean contriversial is something I'd want to read as a teacher. But then again everyone is different.
My only major want is to change a few things, add in a paragraph or two to make my thesis more concise, and edit out some things i have already written.
However I do feel like the conferences should be grouped by like minded people, and even topic relevance to each other. But with such a small amount of people and limited amount of time thats something too big to ask.
I have no problems speaking in front of groups if I'm reading something, granted my reading outloud abilities are they best, so the conference wasn't that big of a problem for me.
I do feel like my topic is far too contriversial though, but I mean contriversial is something I'd want to read as a teacher. But then again everyone is different.
My only major want is to change a few things, add in a paragraph or two to make my thesis more concise, and edit out some things i have already written.
However I do feel like the conferences should be grouped by like minded people, and even topic relevance to each other. But with such a small amount of people and limited amount of time thats something too big to ask.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Vanishing Voices
I'm just going to assume all readers read the article of Vanishing Voices because that's all of the people who follow me.
So i usually argue death of speech can equate to death of culture because if you look at the article it clearly relates speech and cultures of the people and to the world. Now I'm not going to take a stance on a side of pro or con mainly cause I kind of don't really care. Well that's bad phrasing. I see equal good and equal bad on each side and am not strongly polarized to a single side. But i want to point out a few observations for each side.
Pro Language Normalizing:
The fact that you're reading this proves that language is becoming normalized, or the idea that everyone is gravitating towards bigger more renown languages, for multiple reasons:
-You're reading English.
-You're using a computer.
The first one is rather redundant. But the second one brings up an interesting point. The fact that social media, or on a broader spectrum the internet, exist and bring such a big world so close in just provides the evidence and warrants a claim that this will happen. All language will be boiled down to a few, if not one, major world language at some point in time. Look at most movies, they're usually only available in German Spanish and french. (don't quote me on that.) We are all forever moving closer into each others lives as people, and the world is getting smaller. People are talking more and more, and the barriers are slowly deteriorating. The only real question is which language will be the worlds primary language and why? (answer below in the comments, I'm basically giving you kids a prompt to more credit.)
Con Language Normalization:
It's plain and simple and no real explanation. It dehumanizes the human culture. We all view ourselves as a big melting pot of cultures and races. Hell we have stereotypes on them. But death of language is death of culture. And death of that melting pot. Why does that matter?Well it doesn't immediately matter, but other peoples cultures directly affect you. Japanese people's solidarity lead to increased work out put and great technological advantages. Germans are historically amazing at math. Without the middle east, we would not have our worlds major Abrahamic religions. America would not be America if we did not take pieces of all cultures. We are the fusion of all of these. You would not be you if it were not for culture.
So i usually argue death of speech can equate to death of culture because if you look at the article it clearly relates speech and cultures of the people and to the world. Now I'm not going to take a stance on a side of pro or con mainly cause I kind of don't really care. Well that's bad phrasing. I see equal good and equal bad on each side and am not strongly polarized to a single side. But i want to point out a few observations for each side.
Pro Language Normalizing:
The fact that you're reading this proves that language is becoming normalized, or the idea that everyone is gravitating towards bigger more renown languages, for multiple reasons:
-You're reading English.
-You're using a computer.
The first one is rather redundant. But the second one brings up an interesting point. The fact that social media, or on a broader spectrum the internet, exist and bring such a big world so close in just provides the evidence and warrants a claim that this will happen. All language will be boiled down to a few, if not one, major world language at some point in time. Look at most movies, they're usually only available in German Spanish and french. (don't quote me on that.) We are all forever moving closer into each others lives as people, and the world is getting smaller. People are talking more and more, and the barriers are slowly deteriorating. The only real question is which language will be the worlds primary language and why? (answer below in the comments, I'm basically giving you kids a prompt to more credit.)
Con Language Normalization:
It's plain and simple and no real explanation. It dehumanizes the human culture. We all view ourselves as a big melting pot of cultures and races. Hell we have stereotypes on them. But death of language is death of culture. And death of that melting pot. Why does that matter?Well it doesn't immediately matter, but other peoples cultures directly affect you. Japanese people's solidarity lead to increased work out put and great technological advantages. Germans are historically amazing at math. Without the middle east, we would not have our worlds major Abrahamic religions. America would not be America if we did not take pieces of all cultures. We are the fusion of all of these. You would not be you if it were not for culture.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Said's States.
My initial thoughts about the whole conflict. After a quick wikipedia to get my footing right in this situation so i dont look like an utter fool in front of the internet i came to this conclusion: Palestine has had more residents than any house in any horror movie. I assume most of it was because of religious warfare, but the fighting still continues because of the whole thing with gaza. Gaza, is basically the fighting ground for the conflict between palestine and isreal, so its like if the east coast and west coast fought but they had their war in kansas. After getting my footing down on this, I started thinking. This man left because of the conflcits, and became a somewhat nomad who left behind his identity because of warring states.
Now what if i told you we didn't need countries. Before you chase me down and accuse me of being a radical or a communist, hear me out. Aside from political boundaries, what are states? Just lines drawn in the sand with a stick. We keep to this political system that creates states and nations that only seek to divide and seperate us more and more. Same thing goes for religion. All this out dated system gives us is war, poverty, collusion, corruption, and a depraved veiw of the common existance. We are all human, we are all people, and because someone lives 5 feet over a "boarder" is not your enemy, because someone youve never evern spoken with told you its there and everyone on the opposite side wants to kill you.
Now you're sitting there hating me, because of such a radical veiw. But look at the reading. This is evident of all the fighting due to states and territories. I feel this belief is just srengthened by the reading, as bias as either side will be about the whole conflict.
But that's just me ranting. I know i shouldn't have done this in two parts ebcause it was hard picking up my train of thoughts...
Now what if i told you we didn't need countries. Before you chase me down and accuse me of being a radical or a communist, hear me out. Aside from political boundaries, what are states? Just lines drawn in the sand with a stick. We keep to this political system that creates states and nations that only seek to divide and seperate us more and more. Same thing goes for religion. All this out dated system gives us is war, poverty, collusion, corruption, and a depraved veiw of the common existance. We are all human, we are all people, and because someone lives 5 feet over a "boarder" is not your enemy, because someone youve never evern spoken with told you its there and everyone on the opposite side wants to kill you.
Now you're sitting there hating me, because of such a radical veiw. But look at the reading. This is evident of all the fighting due to states and territories. I feel this belief is just srengthened by the reading, as bias as either side will be about the whole conflict.
But that's just me ranting. I know i shouldn't have done this in two parts ebcause it was hard picking up my train of thoughts...
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: 4 Things I found peculiar other than this pun
This is a dark twisted book written at a lower level,
which isn't necessarily a bad thing except for the fact the book seemed
to be made for a younger person along with the fact that the cover just
screams "Hey little child, I hope you didn't enjoy sleeping, because I'm
about to bring you nightmares for the next few weeks." Granted the book itself isn't that scary or creepy, but the pictures are.
Namely on the cover of the book, and on the back. Jesus, when I bought
the book for my writing class I thought for sure amazon sent me the
wrong book and I was gonna get a free kindle or something since they
messed up my shipping.
Things this book taught me:
1) Not all people have Dementia: why prejudice sucks and can make you money.
But sadly no free kindle, only a book that makes one question the inherent beliefs of prejudice and view points even in ones own family. While yes, many people's grandparents tell creepy stories about how little gas was and how much better life was back then, just imagine the world without the simple luxury of air conditioning and that in itself is its own nightmare. Jacob's grandpa's stories are real, but no one wants to listen to him because you could listen to a 2 year old try to talk to you and it would make more of a believable plot about his back story. Which only leads to something that should be postulated, that everyone over the age of 80 and under the age of 10 have nothing important to say ever. Just think about it, you could go an entire conversation without listening to them and still seem like the nicest person. Just agreeing with some person that falls into those parameters is enough for them to love you. "Why yes [grandpa/child], dogs do grow a lot of hair sometimes," and bam! you are immediately the bee's knees to this person. However this book breaks that mentality because low and behold that the psychotic old man is actually telling the truth. Talk about a plot twist no one has ever seen before, M. Night Shamalan should be taking notes.
So now our hero Jacob needs to go and find out the truth about his grandpa because apparently no one ever got to know the guy when he was alive. What a lack of bonding this man had with his son or better remembered as the main character's skeptical neanderthal of a father who doesn't care about his son's mental health. His son wants to go to an island so he can make peace with his grandfather's death and he's all like, "nah bro, that's stupid" (not an actual quote). But the minute they talk about birds, he's all aboard. We get it you're a writer who cares about work over his family, now we can check that cliche off in a teens dark drama book.
Bottom line is, people today are prejudice in a time where everything is instant. While this is a trait not exclusive to this time period (remember the whole 1970's where prejudice was really really bad?), it has amplified with the lack of patience in meeting people. Inside the book they do actually make every good contention that just because you have beliefs and no facts about a person doesn't give you the right to judge them. This whole book would have been 50 pages long, tops, if they had just gotten to know their grandpa. But that doesn't make money, however it does provide an excellent story about a boy who goes to an orphanage to find out about his family. Kind of like if Will Smith's mom sent him to live with the Adamms Family instead of with Carlton and his family and more death of relatives. But I digress, this book does make a fantastic point that skepticism and prejudice should be managed wisely as to not cloud your view of the world as it is.
2) Sociocultural differences in Horror stories:
Different sets of stories have different audiences they affect. Every culture has different views on what is scary. For example, as Americans we find the woods scary because ever since Plymouth and the colonies we never knew for sure what was in the woods. However, British people are afraid of the city around the mass urbanization and industrialization that came around during the past few centuries. It's a new frontier and one that most people weren't accustomed to. Fears and stories, such as jack the ripper, were big to them. Every culture has its own set of bugaboos when it comes to horror stories that they just love to pull at to make you nearly or completely pee your pants from horror. If you sat down at a United Nations campfire and told a story as an American, it would be scary (hopefully) but won't ever reach its full potential as if you were just telling Americans.
This is why one of the key factors here is setting. The fact this book takes place on an island that's really hard to get to immediately puts up a flag. If it doesn't then its because you don't understand the gravity of the situation. If you're totally cool with it, try locking yourself in a building with a serial killer and boarding up the doors. But you need to put on the facade you are cool right? And everyone knows that safety and escape routes are uncool, so you might as well take your chances with a murderer. However back to the setting talk. The next big setting is within the already sketchy island that no one seems to ever visit, possibly because there's a grand total of about 50 people all through out the town, and only about 5 of them talk (not actual numbers). This immediately brings the idea of ghost town to my mind, but if you watch any horror movie where they break down and go to a town for a night, usually if there is a very small population then its about to go down. Cross-apply that to this book. The next thing that comes up is an orphanage/home for peculiar children. Nothing good ever comes from either of those things, ever. They just put a darker tone to the book, but then again it could be an insane asylum or deserted carnival. The next thing to make me say "If this was me, I would have been off the island hours ago," was the fact that there were woods. Maybe if my culture was different and I was raised somewhere else this would've been a breeze, but not my apprehensive American mind is telling me that no where on this island is safe.
3) Fosters home for Imaginary Friend and Tim Burton had a collective think tank and this was their brain child: Hero's Journey.
For those of you who have no idea what Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is, you probably had a bad childhood. If you're over the age of 30, I can understand a little, but a real hidden gem coming from an 18 year old who still watches cartoons occasionally. Let the judgement rain down upon me.
For the "too long, don't read version," this is it: A kid becomes "too grown up for imaginary friends," which is completely stupid (once again, coming from the 18 year old cartoon viewer.), so he has to take his friend to a house where they just hang out and friends get adopted. It's basically an orphanage for weird things, such as the orphans in our book. Now take the innocent kids show, and apply a Tim Burton filter on literally everything possible. However, as hard as I looked I could not find Johnny Depp so I was assured Tim Burton didn't lay a hand on the book. "Nah dude, having it in a city is too easy. A bog is way more dramatic and creepy," I presume the author thought. Granted this book has every element needed to be creepy, but is never really creepy.
However everyone can say that about everything. You ever have that friend that pulls out the similarities between the dumbest things? Like a friend who goes, "Halo 3 is just the Bible set in the future!" Your first instinct is to say calm the junk down fan boy, because I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't own a paintball mask and an assault rifle, as much as some people wanted him to. It does raise a great point though, because both are basic archetypes of the hero's journey. All great stories follow this mold, such as Star Wars or the Odyssey. So why break the mold right? It's worked great, and I can't think of as many great stories that try to be all cool and hipster and try to break this mold than stories that do use this mold. Jacob is obviously the hero in the book, the mentor is his grandpa, the obvious travel to exotic (for the lack of a better adjective) places, the growth of his personality and self image from a giant wuss to a somewhat smaller wuss, and finally him helping out everyone in the home move to a new loop. This book fits the mold, its as if the author had a dual monitor set up with the hero's journey set up on one and Microsoft word on the other.
The recurring theme of birds and why it bothered me, until now.
When I picked up the book I had no idea that's how you spelled peregrine, like the peregrine falcon. I was pronouncing it wrong for about half the book. However I did notice a huge theme about birds, because it wasn't like the author was cramming it down your throat or anything.
Upon finish however, and after finding out the correct pronunciation of peregrine all the wheels clicked, and I was genuinely intrigued by the fact that there's a lot about birds in this book. The first thing that intrigued me was time travel. As it turns out, it wasn't all BS. A recent study found that birds can mentally count and predict the patterns of ants. Needless to say I found a new love for birds that day. It also reminded me of Chronos, or father time, for he is depicted as having wings sometimes so its fairly simple to draw the line between the two. There is also a tale of a Welsh monk who gets caught in the song of birds, and upon returning to the monastery he realizes that time has gone forward by a lot.
So I kept digging and digging through the vastness of the Internet for new and cool bird allusions, and I eventually found that most cultures have a story relating to birds and/or time travel. I found out a time traveling bird apparently prolonged the amount of time it took to find that devious Higgs-Boson particle we were looking for since 1964.
Bottom line is that birds have been linked to time travel, so even if you didn't like the book or my blog post, at least you learned something cool.
Very nice book, with a darker feel. I enjoyed it. Could have ended better then them just rowing off. But I digress.
Things this book taught me:
1) Not all people have Dementia: why prejudice sucks and can make you money.
But sadly no free kindle, only a book that makes one question the inherent beliefs of prejudice and view points even in ones own family. While yes, many people's grandparents tell creepy stories about how little gas was and how much better life was back then, just imagine the world without the simple luxury of air conditioning and that in itself is its own nightmare. Jacob's grandpa's stories are real, but no one wants to listen to him because you could listen to a 2 year old try to talk to you and it would make more of a believable plot about his back story. Which only leads to something that should be postulated, that everyone over the age of 80 and under the age of 10 have nothing important to say ever. Just think about it, you could go an entire conversation without listening to them and still seem like the nicest person. Just agreeing with some person that falls into those parameters is enough for them to love you. "Why yes [grandpa/child], dogs do grow a lot of hair sometimes," and bam! you are immediately the bee's knees to this person. However this book breaks that mentality because low and behold that the psychotic old man is actually telling the truth. Talk about a plot twist no one has ever seen before, M. Night Shamalan should be taking notes.
So now our hero Jacob needs to go and find out the truth about his grandpa because apparently no one ever got to know the guy when he was alive. What a lack of bonding this man had with his son or better remembered as the main character's skeptical neanderthal of a father who doesn't care about his son's mental health. His son wants to go to an island so he can make peace with his grandfather's death and he's all like, "nah bro, that's stupid" (not an actual quote). But the minute they talk about birds, he's all aboard. We get it you're a writer who cares about work over his family, now we can check that cliche off in a teens dark drama book.
Bottom line is, people today are prejudice in a time where everything is instant. While this is a trait not exclusive to this time period (remember the whole 1970's where prejudice was really really bad?), it has amplified with the lack of patience in meeting people. Inside the book they do actually make every good contention that just because you have beliefs and no facts about a person doesn't give you the right to judge them. This whole book would have been 50 pages long, tops, if they had just gotten to know their grandpa. But that doesn't make money, however it does provide an excellent story about a boy who goes to an orphanage to find out about his family. Kind of like if Will Smith's mom sent him to live with the Adamms Family instead of with Carlton and his family and more death of relatives. But I digress, this book does make a fantastic point that skepticism and prejudice should be managed wisely as to not cloud your view of the world as it is.
2) Sociocultural differences in Horror stories:
Different sets of stories have different audiences they affect. Every culture has different views on what is scary. For example, as Americans we find the woods scary because ever since Plymouth and the colonies we never knew for sure what was in the woods. However, British people are afraid of the city around the mass urbanization and industrialization that came around during the past few centuries. It's a new frontier and one that most people weren't accustomed to. Fears and stories, such as jack the ripper, were big to them. Every culture has its own set of bugaboos when it comes to horror stories that they just love to pull at to make you nearly or completely pee your pants from horror. If you sat down at a United Nations campfire and told a story as an American, it would be scary (hopefully) but won't ever reach its full potential as if you were just telling Americans.
This is why one of the key factors here is setting. The fact this book takes place on an island that's really hard to get to immediately puts up a flag. If it doesn't then its because you don't understand the gravity of the situation. If you're totally cool with it, try locking yourself in a building with a serial killer and boarding up the doors. But you need to put on the facade you are cool right? And everyone knows that safety and escape routes are uncool, so you might as well take your chances with a murderer. However back to the setting talk. The next big setting is within the already sketchy island that no one seems to ever visit, possibly because there's a grand total of about 50 people all through out the town, and only about 5 of them talk (not actual numbers). This immediately brings the idea of ghost town to my mind, but if you watch any horror movie where they break down and go to a town for a night, usually if there is a very small population then its about to go down. Cross-apply that to this book. The next thing that comes up is an orphanage/home for peculiar children. Nothing good ever comes from either of those things, ever. They just put a darker tone to the book, but then again it could be an insane asylum or deserted carnival. The next thing to make me say "If this was me, I would have been off the island hours ago," was the fact that there were woods. Maybe if my culture was different and I was raised somewhere else this would've been a breeze, but not my apprehensive American mind is telling me that no where on this island is safe.
3) Fosters home for Imaginary Friend and Tim Burton had a collective think tank and this was their brain child: Hero's Journey.
For those of you who have no idea what Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is, you probably had a bad childhood. If you're over the age of 30, I can understand a little, but a real hidden gem coming from an 18 year old who still watches cartoons occasionally. Let the judgement rain down upon me.
For the "too long, don't read version," this is it: A kid becomes "too grown up for imaginary friends," which is completely stupid (once again, coming from the 18 year old cartoon viewer.), so he has to take his friend to a house where they just hang out and friends get adopted. It's basically an orphanage for weird things, such as the orphans in our book. Now take the innocent kids show, and apply a Tim Burton filter on literally everything possible. However, as hard as I looked I could not find Johnny Depp so I was assured Tim Burton didn't lay a hand on the book. "Nah dude, having it in a city is too easy. A bog is way more dramatic and creepy," I presume the author thought. Granted this book has every element needed to be creepy, but is never really creepy.
However everyone can say that about everything. You ever have that friend that pulls out the similarities between the dumbest things? Like a friend who goes, "Halo 3 is just the Bible set in the future!" Your first instinct is to say calm the junk down fan boy, because I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't own a paintball mask and an assault rifle, as much as some people wanted him to. It does raise a great point though, because both are basic archetypes of the hero's journey. All great stories follow this mold, such as Star Wars or the Odyssey. So why break the mold right? It's worked great, and I can't think of as many great stories that try to be all cool and hipster and try to break this mold than stories that do use this mold. Jacob is obviously the hero in the book, the mentor is his grandpa, the obvious travel to exotic (for the lack of a better adjective) places, the growth of his personality and self image from a giant wuss to a somewhat smaller wuss, and finally him helping out everyone in the home move to a new loop. This book fits the mold, its as if the author had a dual monitor set up with the hero's journey set up on one and Microsoft word on the other.
The recurring theme of birds and why it bothered me, until now.
When I picked up the book I had no idea that's how you spelled peregrine, like the peregrine falcon. I was pronouncing it wrong for about half the book. However I did notice a huge theme about birds, because it wasn't like the author was cramming it down your throat or anything.
Upon finish however, and after finding out the correct pronunciation of peregrine all the wheels clicked, and I was genuinely intrigued by the fact that there's a lot about birds in this book. The first thing that intrigued me was time travel. As it turns out, it wasn't all BS. A recent study found that birds can mentally count and predict the patterns of ants. Needless to say I found a new love for birds that day. It also reminded me of Chronos, or father time, for he is depicted as having wings sometimes so its fairly simple to draw the line between the two. There is also a tale of a Welsh monk who gets caught in the song of birds, and upon returning to the monastery he realizes that time has gone forward by a lot.
So I kept digging and digging through the vastness of the Internet for new and cool bird allusions, and I eventually found that most cultures have a story relating to birds and/or time travel. I found out a time traveling bird apparently prolonged the amount of time it took to find that devious Higgs-Boson particle we were looking for since 1964.
Bottom line is that birds have been linked to time travel, so even if you didn't like the book or my blog post, at least you learned something cool.
Very nice book, with a darker feel. I enjoyed it. Could have ended better then them just rowing off. But I digress.
Friday, August 31, 2012
One of my favorite blogs!
My
favorite blog is geekycrap.tumblr.com because of the relatable nostalgia the
blogger share with me about games from our childhood. A college student from
brazil runs the blog about different video games, science, TV shows, and other
nerd memorabilia own the blog. You can
tell the atmosphere of this blog right off the bat due to the initial title of
the blog saying “this is geeky crap!” The video games range from all the video
games many of my age group grew up playing such as Mario Kart, The Legend of
Zelda, Donkey Kong, and many other platforms. They also have recent releases of
hit games, but the blog seems to focus more around the previous generation of
consoles’ games. The memorabilia is
adaptions of well known brands but adapted to be about other things, like a Tim
Burton adaptation to the first 9 original pokemon, or a chipotle burrito with
Finn the Human’s face from Adventure Time. science on it isn’t any specific
field, its just cool science facts that are written in terms the common man
could understand and would find interesting. The entire blog is dedicated to
nerds, as you can tell by the retro Gameboy as the blogs title that says “this
is geeky crap!” on the side (seeing as how it’s the title of the blog), and
many people who want a trip down memory lane into their child hood video games
would appreciate this blog.
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