Post # 30: The Hiatus

It's winter break! Yay! The semester is over and I have three weeks to devote to things that are not school! I'm over whatever illness that crawled up from the depths of Hades to plague me, and my mom is going to make peanut butter cookies tonight!
Because it's break, we aren't required to post anything, but I'm still going to. That way, when my blog becomes all sorts of popular, there won't be this big three week gap between posts. And also, I like working on this blog. It's fun.
I knit, in case you didn't know that, or you forgot. So, of course everyone this year got a hat. I made the LilSis a One Direction hat, I made my Grandma a spiral eyelet hat, and I made my Mom a Bert and Ernie hat. One side has Bert, the other has Ernie. It turned out pretty fabulous. I knitted my best friend a hat to match the fingerless gloves I made her for her birthday. Right now I'm working on a pair of fingerless gloves for my Grandma. They will match her hat, once I'm done.

Also-I went and saw Catching Fire. It was exceptionally well done, and really great and I don't want to see it again anytime soon. It was too emotionally taxing for me to call it "enjoyable". I enjoyed seeing Thor. I enjoy Colin Farrell movies. I sat curled up in my seat hoping we were nearing the end of the two-and-a-half hours so I could stand in the sun and do something mindless during CF. Even the comic relief wasn't enough to relieve the tension. The PTSD-filled brutality of it was too much for my chest to handle. But it followed the book really well!

Post #29: A Thankful Heart

I am thankful for many things, including, but not limited to, my family and friends (duh), comic books, mechanical pencils, pizza, lined paper, libraries, and this blog assignment.
Yes, you read that correctly. I am thankful for this blog project.
I am thankful because it requires me to write at least twice a week. Even if I don't manage to do as much personal writing as I would like, I know that I have a guaranteed requirement to write something each week. And, I have to publish it. People actually read this. And by people I mean Mr. Burge and WDJ. And sometimes NatPark. But it's still out there. I still have to write.
And, what's really great, is I can pretty much write whatever I want. One of my posts has to relate to English, and that's fine. English is my favorite class. Mr. Burge is a big reason why I stayed on at my school. And it's really fun to write about my love/hate relationship with literary canon.
But I really enjoy the personal posts.
The personal posts are a challenge for me because at least half of the time I put into those posts is spent trying to come up with a good topic. At first I tried to write things that sounded extremely sophisticated and would appeal to all sorts of readers. But as I've become more comfortable with my writing, I am writing what makes me happy. If it means I write an entire post about my love for a depressed 80's band, so be it. If you don't want to read about that love, find another blog. It's a good feeling to not care about what you write, so long as you write what makes you happy.
I'm also thankful for Johnny Cash.
-D.

Post #28: Is It Really So Strange?

I love The Smiths. I love them with almost every fiber of my being. I didn't always, though. At age eleven, I thought Morrissey was the biggest whiner on the planet. Seriously, get over yourself. You don't have a girlfriend because you are a whiner.
Fast forward two years. As soon as I hit high school, it all made sense. Throw my homework onto the fire? Sounds like a plan! Their music was the story of my life! Not really, but misery loves company. If I wasn't a happy camper, Morrissey totally understood. Why do I smile at people I'd rather kick in the eye? Morrissey never had an answer, but he sure did know about what a suckfest life can be. And he knew the importance of being intelligent and clever. "There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more" he says in "Handsome Devil", and being the girl who would live in the library if she could, I couldn't agree more. And their album and single covers featured the likes of James Dean (from East of Eden!) and Elvis. And if there is anyone I could possibly love more than The Smiths, it's The Big 'E'.  And the Smiths loved the King too. There's a cover of "His Latest Flame" on Rank.

Morrissey is almost always sad on the Smiths albums, but now again there is a song that has a glimmer of hope. Songs like "Ask" and "I Won't Share You". They're both a little bleak, but hopeful all the same.
For our song project in English a couple months ago, I seriously considered bringing a Smiths song. I decided on Josh Ritter, but it was pretty close.
Josh Ritter is almost a complete 180 from The Smiths. He has some sad songs, but most of his songs are hopeful about love. Even his angry post-divorce album has some hopeful songs about love. He sings about love that seems pure and innocent and complicated and confusing all at once, and I think that's what real love is. Complicated, but wonderful and pure. And not just love toward a significant other. Love toward all things in life is that way.
My love for The Smiths is that way. Complicated sometimes, but always wonderful.
"No it's not like any other love, this one is different because it's us." - "Hand In Glove"
-D.

Post #27: Oh, Yeah. He Died.

Clerval's death didn't seem like a big deal. It was one paragraph and then Frankenstein passed out again. In any other book, I would be a little irritated, but in Frankenstein, I see why Shelley would downplay it.

By downplaying Clerval's death when we first find out about it, she is able to focus more on the effects it has on Frankenstein and those around him. All of the deaths are downplayed, except one. And I think that it's really effective. 

As the bodies begin to pile up, Frankenstein feels more and more guilty. He becomes sick from his guilt and starts to concern his family. 

Victor played with fire, and it burned his house to the ground. And, The Creature literally burns a different house to the ground. There is a lot of fire, both literally and figuratively. The Romantic ideals and science mix and explode with extreme force.
 And, quite frankly, who in their right mind would say "You know what sounds really fun? Screwing around with crap we don't understand, like reanimation! What could possibly go wrong?" Now, don't get me wrong, I think that screwing around with something you don't understand is a great way to learn and gain understanding, but reanimating flesh? Not such a great idea. 

But, it also raises ethical and existential questions. How far is too far in science? Why do we as humans struggle to make connections with other humans? Do you see the same red that I see? Will we ever know the answers? 

-D.

Post #26: The Pink Tree

          On that cold morning in early December, Madeline Ross rolled out of bed, put on her pink slippers and put on her pink robe. She found pink ornaments still in their packaging lying on her desk. The day had barely begun and it was already the best in her six-year-old life.

            “Mommy! Daddy!” she cried running down the stairs. “look what the tooth fairy left me!”  Her parents chuckled. She hadn’t actually lost any teeth, but the tooth fairy might leave little presents for little girls for no reason. When Madeline ran into the  living room, she stopped dead. She was so excited, she nearly peed her pants. She dropped the ornaments and ran to the bathroom. After washing her hands, she ran back to the living room. It was still there.  She squealed very loudly. There, in her living room, was a pink tree, six feet tall and covered in sparkles. Her parents got off the couch and smiled.

            “Do you like it pumpkin?” Her daddy asked.

            “Oh yes! Oh yes oh yes oh yes!” she cried jumping up and down.

            Billy Ross rolled out of bed to hear his younger sister squealing in delight. The day had only just started and he could tell it would be the worst in his ten-year-old life. He shuffled down the stairs and into the living room. He was so horrified, he almost peed his pants.

After washing his hands, he returned to the living room. The nightmare was still there. He moaned. There, in his living room, was a pink tree, six feet tall, covered in those little glitter things his sister was always dumping everywhere.

            “Billy look!” Madeline cried, hugging his hips. “It’s a pink tree from heaven! The tooth fairy brought us a pink tree!” she danced around the room.

            “More like the devil brought us a pink tree from Hades.”  Billy muttered under his breath.

            “Billy! That was not appropriate!” His mother scolded.

            “Sorry.” He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. His mother gave him a We’ll-talk-about-this-later look. She headed to the kitchen, her husband following close behind. Madeline ran to catch up with them.

“when do we get to decorate it, daddy?” Madeline asked four times in rapid succession.

“Tonight, after you get back from school.” He said.

“Yay!” she cried, and happily sat down for breakfast.

“Susie!” Madeline called when they got to the elementary school.

“Madeline!” Susie called back. They gave each other a hug.

“Guess what I got! A pink tree!” Madeline squealed. Susie squealed with her.

“Can I come over and see it?” Susie asked, wonder in her voice.

“Of course.” Madeline said matter-of-factly. “Right mommy?” she asked.

“I’ll see what I can do. Have a good day sweetheart.”

“Thanks mom!” and with that, the two girls hurried to class, still squealing about pink trees.

At lunch, Billy never heard the end of it. It was all ‘Billy has a pink tree’ this, and ‘pink tree at Billy’s house’ that. Billy sat by himself, until Carlie Jacobson sat next to him.

“Hi.” She said. Billy blushed. He had a huge crush on Carlie.

“Hi Carlie.” He finally managed to eek out.

“I heard you guys have a pink tree. It’s awfully nice of you to let your sister have the pink tree.” She said. “Last year we had to decorate the tree with Hot Wheels instead of the ornaments. But in the end it was worth it, because my little brother was so excited.”

“Yeah…Madie’s pretty excited.” He said.

“Maybe I can come over and see it sometime.” She said getting up to leave.

“yeah, totally.” He said.

Maybe the tree wasn't as bad as he thought. 

Post #25: Experimenting With Things Beyond One's Understanding

Today, Mr. Frankenstein created his creature. He did not yell "it's alive! It's alive!" At the top of his lungs. In fact, he was horrified and disgusted and then he passed out. It was pretty anticlimactic. We talked about the tone of the passage and we are going to eventually (hopefully) talk about theme at the same length. I think the most important theme is the idea that you shouldn't screw around with crap meant to be left alone. However, that does not sound even remotely academic, at all. And that's fine. Right now I'm brainstorming and that idea is at the center of my idea web. I like idea webs, even though Mr. Burge thinks that they are silly. They help me see all of my ideas at once, so I can process relations and similarities. I love idea webs and lists. So, I dug out my thesaurus and started looking up synonyms. I eventually came up with: experimenting with things beyond one's understanding often leads to undesired and unexpected consequences. I think it's a solid statement of theme to start working with. Obviously it needs work, but it's a start. I love working on statements of theme. I understand what something is about. I can pick up on those nuances and whatnot. I love constructing statements of theme. Their structure is so much different than the way I would normally write, much less speak. That's why they're fun. It's a change from the way I would normally think about word order. It's a challenge. Challenges are fun.
"If everything seems under control, you are not going fast enough." - Mario Andretti
D