Roger Williamson Crash

  In 1973 Formula 1 driver, Dave Purly, tries to save his friend and fellow driver Roger Williamson when his car flips on the track. One of the saddest things I've ever seen.

New Source of Energy?

Sweden has found an interesting way to deal with the mounds of trash that are over loading land fills across the globe and I can see it being very prevalent in the future. Here is the link.

To Facebook or not to Facebook

     My initial impression of Facebook was that it was an easy way to stay in touch or to communicate with your friends. I now know that there are several risks involved with using Facebook along with the benefits. I'm not sure what article you are talking about because I wasn't in class today but based off of what I have read I think that using Facebook is all about your personal preference. If you don't like the idea of people knowing what you put up there, then don't use it because people will find out. I just try to treat my Facebook as if everyone can read it, which they can.

Midterm Reflection

1.) I think I did fairly well in matching up the words that I knew with the correct definition even though some of them were tricky.

2.) I really struggled with knowing all of the words and I think this is largely due to me just cramming for every vocabulary quiz we have had and I didn't retain many of the words at all.

3.) I think that some of it will stick with me but I also think that if I don't go back and study them more, I stand a great chance of forgetting a lot of the words.

4.) Like I said in number two, I will really try to study throughout the week instead of just on Thursday night for the vocabulary quiz and that should help me tremendously.

Dear Ophelia

      I really think that Hamlet is just mellifluous and is showing you some affection and that you are taking it way too seriously. I really have empathy for you in this situation because it is a common one and it is also quite a bete noire. I think that you need to stop being so fervid about the whole relationship and treat it as it is, a fling. I've got to give kudos to Hamlet here because he has really infatuated you over him and I doubt he has even given you any lagniappe. I bode your pursuance of his heart will be lackluster and end with him just being cantankerous about the whole thing, including you.

Midterm Study Strategy

1.) I will definitely need my vocabulary lists as well as my text book for reading up on the stories that we covered in class in case I have forgotten anything. I will also look more into Beowulf to make sure that I fully grasp the whole genre of epics and that one in depth.

2.) I will be collaborating with several people in my class but the main few will probably be Justin Thompson and Joshua Ng.

3.) Monday: Find all the materials that will be needed for studying the rest of the week and set up your agenda.

Tuesday: Study vocab lists 1-3 and have them memorized and use them in everyday conversations.

Wednesday: Study vocab lists 4-7 and do the same as the other ones.

Thursday: Read the stories that you didn't read out of the textbook and make sure that you understand them well enough to answer relatively in depth questions on its contents.

Friday: You have a soccer game so take the day off.

Literature Analysis #1

Literature Analysis: Brave New World

1. In the Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, there is a "perfect" society. Everything is predetermined and there is no randomness or variability, they control how intelligent you will be and there are classes assigned to each intelligence level. The levels from most intellectually adept to least goes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilons which are only used for menial labor. The novel is about an alpha plus named Bernard, and a "savage" named John who left the native american country to live in this perfect society. John hates how simulated and uniform everything is and despite his best efforts to go under the radar, the public gets to him again and in a moment of weakness, he hangs himself.

2. The most basic theme that I found in the novel is that imperfection is what makes us who we are, adversity is what molds the person we will turn out to be, and without it, we are all the same, living without a meaning or purpose. John saw this and knew he would rather die than live a depressing, meaningless, life.

3. Huxley's tone throughout the novel seems to be bleak, and almost hopeless. It is clear that he does not approve of or look forward to this type of society, and it seems that he wrote this book with the thought that this could be possible in the future if civilization keeps heading in the same direction. His tone reflects the bleak and depressing society that had been created.

4. Diction- Huxley's diction really displays his tone and personal position when it comes to the society that is in the novel. An example of this would be when he said "she saw in a corner the small thin body, the melancholy face of Bernard Marx."

Syntax- The flow of the authors writing seems to me to be very deliberate and straight forward, often with some ambiguity as revealed in the excerpt, "Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turn towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west, then paused...".

Satire- Satire plays probably the most stand out role in this novel as far as literary elements go because it seems as if Huxley wrote this thinking that this was a possible outcome of the future, and one that society was definitely heading towards. 

Repetition- This literary element was used frequently throughout the novel and really helped to emphasize the authors position or to emphasize the importance of a certain event.