Memes

I found the concept of memes interesting Dawkins came up with the word an it is used to show the similarities with the genes. According to some research he came up with the word "meme" by shortening "mimeme" whiche derives from the greek meaning something imitated. But Dawkins refers to it as any cultural entity wich might be considered a replicator. He thought people could view humans in a different way as to how thehy have evolved over time.

TO BE CONTINUED AT HOME..

All For The Best..

The book Candide is a satire written by Voltaire, it is a hilarious book I really enjoyed. After finding myself laughing alone at home I thought about the genius Voltaire is and how he mocked everyone in his society while writing a great and entertaining novel. This novel has many targets many of which include philosophers such as Pangloss, the aristocracy such as Count Pococurante, and just mocking things like death, war, and the idea of happiness and mostly "all is for the best" although the characters were stabbed, hanged, robbed, etc. 

First making fun of philosophers by constantly mentioning Pangloss and what he would have done, and his way of seeing things when the reader is actually thinking: What kind of moron thinks that after going through such tragedies all is for the best? Clearly nobody in our society today. Voltaire also mocks the aristocracy through out the book, a great example is Count Pococurante, this man is a Venetian noble who does not appreciate anything, a perfect statement of a satirical tone is the following: "You must admit he is the happiest man alive, because he is superior to everything he possesses." (Pg. 123) 

I also think he makes fun of the idea of death and the pursuit of happiness. He mocks death by having everyone dyeing and then bringing them back to life, like most of the characters in the book.  And I think one of his targets is the idea or the pursuit of happiness, there is a point in the book were Martin and Candide make bets and go around asking people about their lives, and Candide always looses because they don't manage to find people that are actually happy with their lives, they ask nobleman and poor people and after finding everyones life was miserable Candide finally gives up saying "There is nobody so happy as I shall be when I see Lady Cunegode again." (Pg. 124) This phrase is another example of satire because when Candide actually finds Cunegode, she is a horrible woman that Candide would actually rather not marry although he does, and his destiny winds up with him working in a garden.

I think the book is great and I would absolutely recommend it to somebody who enjoys laughing, and although I read some grotesque parts in the book I think "all is for the best." 

Dead or Alive?

Candide is a book full of violence were people often die in different and grotesque ways, we find at the begining of the book that Pacquette is dead later on we find out that Lady Cunegode is dead, as well as his brother the baron, and Candides dear philosopher Pangloss. These characters are killed under critical and grotesque circumstances and one would never think that we would hear from them again, I mean when somebody is dead that's the way its going to be, they are not coming back to life again. One would never imagine that people would survive after being hanged, disembowled, stabbed by a sword, and at the bord of disection! And all the characters previously mentioned went through all those things and we find them to be alive at the end. I think Voltaire is mocking the reader. Every time I read somebody revived I thought to myself is Voltaire actually serious? Well offcourse he is not, Candide is a satire and when Voltaire brings all this people back to life he is mocking the concept of death and how "poorly" people killed each other because they all revived! Whether it was because of a wet rope or something else they are all alive, I mean seriously dead or alive?

This concept or theme of people dyeing and actually being alive at the end is also present in the movie Sweeney Todd, we think that the main characters wife is dead all the time and at the end we find out she never died she is actually an old women we constantly see through out the movie, and we discover its her when she is actually dead. I think that movie could also be some sort of a satire because we never notice that the old lady is actually the wife, the director of the movie could be mocking the viewers and the actual man who was incapable of recognizing his beloved wife.

The Golden One

Candide reaches a city were people treat precious stones such as diamonds and gold like dirt and soil, this city is called El Dorado. There are many legends concerning El Dorado, most during the time of the spanish inquisition were people told legends about a place were gold was seen everywere and were a king covered himself with golden dust.
This is the place that candide reached in the book, I think Voltaire is mocking the spanish conquistadors. He thinks as well as I do that the mere thought of such a perfect city was extemely impossible, so he decides to include this in the book to make fun of the greed people experienced when they thought this city actually existed, and that Gonzalo Pizarro went on an actual expedition to find it. It is ridicoulous what some people will do for gold and the extremities they will reach. This is why he constantly mentions El Dorado through out the book using a satirical tone.
I also thought about how he describes the place, were nobody cares about wealth, and where luxuries are seen everywhere. I think by this he is actually mocking the whole concepts of our society meaning wealth, power, war, etc. An old man quotes "So far we have been sheltered from the greed of European nations, who have quite irrational lust for the pebbles and dirt found in our soil, and would kill every man of us to get old of them" (Pg. 79) That quote summarizes my point, people today pay ridicoulous amounts of money for diamonds and gold when they are just pebbles and rocks found in our soil, and it is true that many man actually would kill to get hold of them. I think Voltaire is making fun of society, its actually stupid that human beings are so materialistic to the point that shiny stones can make someone feel superior or even inferior, and they can cause one to have certain "power".

Silence

" "

Myths of Evolution (Improved)

In Candide chapter 16 they mention “two girls and two monkeys, and what happened to them amongst the savage Oreillons.” Candide saw two naked girls tripping across a meadow while two monkeys followed them “nibbling their buttocks.” (Pg. 69) He thought the girls were in danger so he shot both monkeys. After killing the monkeys he found out  they were actually the ladies lovers. Candide thinks Cacambo is actually mocking him but Cacambo says the following “Why should you find it so strange that in some parts of the world monkeys obtain ladies favours? They are partly human, just as I am partly Spanish.” (Pg. 70) As I read this I was amazed, it was so absurd so random but then again its satire.

There are many myths of evolution, the most famous one is that we actually have evolved and our descendants are monkeys. Recent studies have proved that according to the theory of evolution humans and monkeys have a common ancestry, so Candide is not so far of from the truth. I like comparing this myths of evolution to the book because maybe Voltaire is also mocking  humans in a sense that we are still animals like the famous philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used to say we are still animals the only thing that has changed is that we are in some terms more advanced. Or maybe he is saying men where such brutes at the time that anyone could have mistaken them for monkeys even Candide. 

 At first I found it awkward that monkeys were the ladies lovers, although Candide also has a satire tone so it could be a hyperbole. You could interpret that in many ways seeing that it is a satire it has all its characteristics; it is a hyperbole because I have heard myths of zoophilia although I think its a hyperbole because there are messed up people in the world but I think saying the monkeys were actually the woman's lovers is a total exaggeration!  I think he is mocking people that actually suffer from zoophilia and he is mocking that women were so desperate in those days because men where total brutes that their only option was recurring to monkeys, how absurd can that actually be? But at the same time its also ironic how so many men fought over women till the point of actually killing them and here are two ladies running after monkeys. I think Voltaire is a genius he meets all the expectative in an entertaining novel, and he links together many topics, all concerning satire making it hilarious and entertaining.

VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igq_niFmXNs

Wounds

Excruciating pain, I see it coming towards me, silence. Red.

Darkness

Rope, a chair, "clung," darkness.

Run

I hear screaming, I run. Faster, back and forth. I see it run after it, I kick. More screaming.

Pick a Target

Candide has many of the characteristics of a satire, or a satyr play. And one of the characteristics of satire is it always has a target. I think some of the targets mentioned in Candide are, monarchy, the authorities, pangloss therefore the philoshophers of the time, war aristocracy and the whole idea of romance. But what is the actual target of the play?
Pick a target...

Vocabulary Chapter XIII

Auto-da-fe:
The burning to death of heretics (as during the Spanish Inquisition)

Sagacious:
Perspicacious: acutely insightful and wise; "much too perspicacious to be taken in by such a spurious argument"; "observant and thoughtful, he was ...
skillful in statecraft or management; "an astute and sagacious statesman"

Harangued:
A monologue (or monolog) is an extended uninterrupted speech by a character in a drama. The character may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud ...

Quarterings:
The division of an escutcheon containing different coats of arms into four or more compartments A quarter of an escutcheon or the coat of arms on it2 : a line of usually noble or distinguished ancestry

Farthing:
A former British bronze coin worth a quarter of a penny

Magistrate:
A lay judge or civil authority who administers the law (especially one who conducts a court dealing with minor offenses)

Haste:
The act of moving hurriedly and in a careless manner

The Ugly Truth

"Imagine the situation of a Pope's daughter aged fifteen, who in three months had undergone poverty and slavery, had been raped nearly every day, had seen her mother cut into four pieces, had undergone hunger and war, and was now dying of the plague in Algiers." (Ch. 12)

It shows us the brutality that took place during the time. Voltaire writes this book with a satire tone meaning he is actually mocking war but in many books, even history text books the truth is sometimes omitted so things don’t sound as dreadful as they really are. History always tries to hide the brutality of events, for example the "Masacre de las Bananeras" in Colombia. This was a massive event during the time of all the revolutionary events that were going on during the time. This was when workers asked for a raise to the UFC (united fruit company) and instead of getting a raise they all got killed. The UFC said there were 9 dead people, and newspaper said there were only 32 but today we know there were approximately 3,000 workers that were killed. I think that sometimes the ugly truth is better than a pretty lie.

The quote at the beginning of the entry could easily be the story of a poor Colombian girl, off course with changes, for example it could look like this: “A poor girl aged fifteen, who in three months had undergone poverty and had been raped various times, had seen her mother shot and had undergone hunger, and was now dyeing of disease.” The ugly truth is always staring us in the face but we decide to look away. We read Candide thinking Voltaire is a brute when we experience the same kind of violence decades later.

Candide

Satire

Choice..

We are constantly making choices every day, every where, every time, whether we are choosing what color socks to wear to which car we should buy. But making choices goes beyond. Actually we need both parts of our brain to make an actual choice, both the rational and the emotional minds. In my English class we have been listening to a show called Radio Lab which talks about choice and the emotional and the rational minds, these are people that make experiments to normal random people and we can actually see that our emotional and our rational minds affect the greatest part of our decisions.

The first show talked about how there was a certain amount of people separated into two groups; one of the groups was given two digits to memorize while the other group was given seven digits to memorize. Their goal was reciting their digits after going through different rooms, but in the way a woman would stop offering cake and fruit. It was said that the group memorizing two digits would choose the fruit given that their rational mind was still concient but the group that was given the 7 numbers chose the cake because their rational mind wasn’t “available”.

I think its amazing how the emotional and the rational systems can effect a person so much and how everything we do from choosing a pen to making a very important decision can vary with our feelings and what we have in our minds.

"Why me?"

Talfamadorians and flying saucers. I think this chapter is overrated, it begins with our friend Billy on the night of her daughters wedding day time traveling. But he cant sleep because he knows the Tralfamadorians will pick him up in no time so he decides to go down stairs grab a bottle of champagne, he thinks about all the violence and war around the world and its humanity, and his thoughts end up again with Adam and Eve. He waits in the yard for his friends to pick him up. The flying saucer arrives and as he goes up he is asked if he has any questions and he asks "why me?" this reminds me of the movie "The knowing" This movie actually mentions many of the points in the chapter. Its about a girl that writes some numbers and puts them away in a time capsule. When they open the time capsule years later they find that all the numbers in the paper are actually dates of massive accidents, then the day arrives were everyone in the world is going to die, and a flying saucer picks up to kids and takes them to a new world were they become Adam and Eve. It mentions violence, flying saucers and Adam and Eve just like the chapter although the overall idea has nothing to do with the chapter key words make them both share similarities

The picture is actually a picture a boy drew for hi weekend project about "Slaughterhouse five" and I found it on another blog.

And so it goes..

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”

Getting back on track with my previous blogs, we are talking about Slaughterhouse five chapter 3, with our friend Billy as the main character of the story. As we can continuously see in the novel Billy is not the happiest human being. He has had a harsh life full of sorrow and grief. In chapter 3 of the novel we see that Billy is constantly having trouble with sleep using a little vibrator to help him, he can no longer stay in the present he is constantly time traveling and he cries from time to time. The chapter begins with Billy in the war and he is laying in the snow and he sees a picture of Adam and Eve in the commanders boots, and he gets some clogs that make his feet bleed when he walks through the cold harsh snow. He time travels when he tries to sleep with his magic fingers vibrator to marching in the snow.  

Thequote “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, 

and wisdom always to tell the difference.” is when they are talking about a bombarding in Vietnam and Billy only thinks about the plaque he has in his office with the quote

i mentioned and its kind of ironic because Billy can not change the past the present nor the future.

And so it goes..

Time Traveler

Chapter 2 in Slaughterhouse five is about Billy Pilgrim traveling through time in an attempt to give us a "tour" through his life. He takes us from place to place, time to time disaster through disaster. He is a unique character who has undergone many moments of crisis during his life. They tell us every detail; from the fact that he was optometrist who was drafted to the fact that his wife died to giving a speech in 1957 as the newly elected president of the Ilium Lions Club.We get to see Billys life from moment to moment we picture everything, we are there, we see him like no one else does. Just the reader and the character picturing every movement, every feeling. One would think that this is a book like any other with the courage and the bravery of loyal friends and a helping hand instead we see that our friend Billy totally lacks companions and instead he is saved by a guy who only thinks about being a hero. 

We also face the idea that this book is no fairy tale, no. In only chapter two we face The death of Billys father in a hunting accident before Billy is drafted, we find ourselves with a plane crash full of victims with Billy being the only survivor, and off course as I previously mentioned the mothers death as she is coming to visit his son. We know that Billy has a tough life although he has survived to a plane crash, war, and his parents death. 

This book actually reminds me of "Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind" this movie is constantly jumping from time to time. It shows us the past, present, and future of the characters life through the main characters dreams and experiences and it also set on the present but it still jumps from time to time its also a little science fiction, like all the part of the aliens picking him up (tralfamadore).

And so it goes.. 

Say it once, maybe twice..

People are constantly communicating with other people, exchanching ideas or simply talking about the latest soccer game. As a highschool student I tend to speak to a lot to my friends, basically that's how I spend most of my free time. And I find it particularly aggrivating when I have to repeat myself more than once. When your caght up with a topic you're really into and people are constantly asking you to repeat things once, twice, and then 3 times it gets to a point where its really tiring, and it may be considered rude. I understand if you're not interested in the topic, but then again then why do you keep "listeting" or pretending when you could be doing something better, and maybe, somebody who is intereseted could actually listen and have an interesting conversation with you. But no, most of the time you just have to put up with people that constantly are asking you to repeat yourself. It can be anywhere, about anything, and with anyone. Sometimes im in the car when my mom decides to tell me AGAIN that we have lunch at my grandmas monday, i get stressed, or sometimes im at school talking to my friend about something I already told her but it seems she wasnt paying attention neither the first or the second time so there I am repeating myself again. Or just socializing at a party talking to a person I just met and I have to repeat myself four times before he can actually get an idea of what im saying because he is not paying atention. Maybe theres reasons, yeah my mom doesnt want to forget my grandmas lunch or my friend really didint hear what I said the first time, and maybe, just maybe the guy im talking to at the party is to drunk and he just noddes because thats all he can do, either way whatever the reason is, I still find it rude and aggrivating.
And offcourse there will always be people who repeat things constantly, they are always telling the same old stories, or just asking again and again what your plans are for the summer. That I find aggrivating as well, as I previously mentioned once is fine, I mean no one is perfect but when people start doing this kinds of things more than once I can't stand it. I was paying attention the first time, I get the point.

V.

I find slaughterhouse five a very interesting book. The first chapter is written in an informal way and I like the way the author tells you about the book at first. For example it mentions songs and informal language it kind of feels like you were having a normal conversation with Vonnegut. He talks about his position in an honest informal way as I previously mentioned. He talks about how he always wished about writing a book about his old days and when he finally got the chance he couldn't remember anything that could actually make the book somewhat interesting. I find this book  entertaining because its different, its unique, it "out of the box" and those are things I definitely enjoy. I cant wait to read the whole book and the chronicles of Vonneguts character, I think I will enjoy it a lot. 

And so it goes..

Utopia

Before her eyes the perfect place,

a world of peace

that looked like space

Full of love,

where no one fought,

and she saw a lovely dove

As white as snow, 

as pure as this

with a beautiful glow

That world we called Utopia,

it was nice,

but it was also a dystopia

The Irony of Karma

In my 9th grade pre-ap english class we are discussing poetic justice, due to the fact that our summer reading book was Dante's Inferno, this book is about a mans journey through hell and each circle of hell is all about poetic justice. For example, one of the rings of hell is lust and the people in that ring are being punished by being cold (in a literal way) all their lives so they are "burned" by passion no longer. I associate poetic justice with what we call today, karma. Karma is in Buddhist teaching, the law that says only this: `for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful. Its basic idea is that life is like a boomerang everything eventually hits you again, in a good or bad way.  Some people believe in destiny, they say everything is already planned and you are only alive to serve a purpose and die, while others say believe in mere coincidences. But whatever it is you believe in there is  still the idea of poetic justice.

I saw an episode of The Twilight Zone, the show is basically in an town where we can only find two survivors. A woman and a man, they both are dressed in u abandoned uniforms they are both hungry and they fight for a can of chicken that the man eventually wins but ends up giving it to the woman. She eats the chicken and after following the man around the abandoned setting they both find war propaganda. After seeing each other in the poster the woman freaks out and tries to attack the man again, but the irony of the episode is when the man takes of the dress of the mannequin and gives it to her, after a while she finally wears it and they both look into each others eyes and smile like they were never enemies. This reflects poetic justice because it is ironic how after they both fought for different peoples, tried to kill each other a couple of times, and had different believes they ended up together like there was never any problem.

 

MSN conv.

Vivian: Hi Sofi!
Sofia: Hey viv, whats up?
Vivian: I just got home
Sofia: So did I, I was having lunch with Isabella. What about you?
Vivian: I was at the gym
Sofia: Really? I have class tomorrow, how did it go?
Vivian: Im exhausted , but it was great
Sofia: Cool, so what are we doing tomorrow afternoon?
Vivian: I dont know do you want to go have lunch in la t?
Sofia: No I can´t, I´m really buissy since I got my new puppy!
Vivian: When did you get a puppy?
Sofia: Yesterday!
Vivian: Really what did you name her?
Sofia: Zoey.
Vivian: I love the name! How old is she?
Sofia: Shes just 3 months, and she is a yorkshire teacup
Vivian: Really? I my cousin has one.
Sofia: Yeah, what are you doing?
Vivian: My english homework what about you?
Sofia: Im watching a movie.
Vivian: Witch one?
Sofia: Mad Money
Vivian: Is that the one with Diane Keaton and Katie Holmes?
Sofia: Yes! Its great, you should come over on Sunday.
Vivian: I will
Sofia: Viv, I have to go
Vivian: Ok, see you tomorrow at school
Sofia: What do you have for first period?
Vivian: I have math with you!
Sofia: Right! Im just getting used to my schedule
Vivian: Okay see you tomorrow
Sofia: Bye, love you!
Vivian: Me too!

Excerpt on Blogs

Today our society revolves around the concept of technology. Every day more people learn how to access the internet to find more than 100 million blogs in the world. Young people are starting to get interested on blogs, forgetting newspapers and magazines. The excerpt of "blogs" talks about how blogs differ from one another, from books and much more. 

As I read the passage I realized that blogs are somewhat in

formal. It mentions how bloggers sometimes don't even stop to punctuate, they use symbols that represent emotions like

; :) and :(. As I continued reading I also thought about how young generations, including myself talk to friends online using symbols and no capitalization or punctuation. I like that blogs are written informally I think most of the people that access most of the cites are looking for something easy, fun, and entertaining and that writing an entry informally can help the text become som

ewhat attractive in a way. 

It also talks about how blogs can't be printed out, they include links, news, gossip, pictures and videos. This also made me think about how I am used 

to access cites such as facebook, where I find pictures, videos, gossip and even news, and I figured that most of the people in our generation rather access facebook than 

read a book or a newspaper. 

Every time the passage grew smaller, more and more thoughts came to my head. I thought about how maybe in the future newspapers and magazines will be scarce, and more blogs and cites will be posted. 

This would also help our environment in terms of recycling, and decreasing global warming. I also thought about how more and more people get

linked into some subjects. 

My favorite t.v show is called Gossip Girl this show is about a group of upper east side teenagers that frequent a blog called 

"Gossip Girl" it is about how everybody at school knows about this blog that talks about gossip and they basically revolve around it. This is a number one hit t.v show and its basically "promoting" blogs ;-). For example the excerpt on "Blogs" I previously mentioned speaks about "link whores" people who basically post lies and gossip to become "blogebrities" these are people that want their blog to become famous, just like the "Gossip Girl" blog. 

There are millions of blogs and cites being posted every minute about different subjects, they all differ and the excerpt on "Blogs" is a great guide to the world of blogs.