Bran-Man English 12A

Happiness poem

2008-06-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

To pursue happiness is to seek your inner self
To seek your inner self is to truly know who you are
Your happiness is who you are
Like the wolf's joy of the hunt with its pack,
A person is only happy with what they do and are good with
Happiness is in ones heart
It can range from material goods
to feeling of emotion and of the flesh
Happiness isn't always the same thing
But happiness is happiness

Prediction after chapter 10

2008-05-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling that this entire time, O'Brien has been working for the thought police and Winston will be able to face Big Brother himself and Big Brother will talk to Winston convincing him that there is nothing he can do to stop his ways, somewhat like what happened in the end of Brave New World.

Or this is a test from O'Brien to see if Winston can handle being captured. And that test will set Winston's ultimate faith in the Brotherhood.

Genetic Engineering

2008-03-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

Science has grown over the ages and it’s been crossing the border to cause controversy. Stem cell research and genetic engineering have provoked religious moves to go against the option to alter a child before it’s born. After gathering facts and thinking through it, I’m against the genetic altering of unborn children except for the prevention of disease and disabilities.

There are two good sides of this argument and I won’t strike down opposition to my opinion. Altering the genetics could prevent the death of new-borne children from disease and defects. The prevention of some diseases could even result the end of most other diseases in the far future. Scientists can make sure that the spine is formed properly and end being paralyzed for good. Or maybe the parents have some sort of disease or defect to prevent a baby being born. That could result in couples having test tube babies when they couldn’t have babies at all before.

Countries like China have an overpopulation of women and too little men. Female babies are given up and abandoned because everyone wants a boy to be born. Using genetics, scientists can change the gender to bring up the population of the men. A couple can decide on how their children look to make sure they are beautiful in their eyes. Families whom are strongly against homosexuality can even lower the chance of their children being gay or bisexual.

On the other hand, preventing deformities and diseases may be good, but changing physical and mental attributes could result in a population being too alike. If everyone didn’t have a big nose or small hands, then the diversity over time could disappear. Choosing gender might be good in China but giving a normal American couple the option would result in possible over population of a male or female. A lot of people may want all boys to continue on their name, or girls for a different reason.

Genetically altering a baby to make it smarter could be a new useful trend to increase the population’s intellect, but changing things like sexuality should be left to the person. This is because extremists who have babies might make them gay or straight and raise the children in a way that could cause hatred to the other party. It would result in more protests, fights, and disagreements.

This technology has been used for a little while in different ways by now. We can now start to see results of these altering which could be both good and bad. That’s why I say that we restrict genetic altering to be used only to prevent illness and defects. Stopping it now could prevent a change of the future that we may not want.

Test Tube babies

2008-03-04T17:54:00.001-08:00

(Response to paper read for class)

The main struggle for the whole embryo study and genetic altering is religion. So many people go by what they believe and usually it'll say that even an embryo could be considered a being. I personally feel that usage of eggs not a problem because scientifically, it's dead unless it has a male seed. I normally look upon this topic scientifically and say that it's not doing harm to a being because the brain isn't even developed at all until a certain stage of pregnancy. Until the brain is put in, that baby is an empty shell.

The ban of egg freezing and study is outrageous. It's like saying to ban sperm study or research of any body tissue. All eggs are, are cells with genetic information.

I believe

2008-02-15T14:05:00.000-08:00

Many people have bad talked technology in a sense that it isolates us from others and society. I think differently. I believe technology keeps us closer together. Technology’s ability to communicate allows us to learn about each other faster and more in depth than normal conversations.

In my junior year I had exchanged instant messenger screen names with someone in one of my classes. We only saw each other once a day in that class and barely talked because of the work we had to do in it. Also he wasn’t the most outgoing person. It’d be hard to talk personally with him because he’s so shy. But almost every night we’d spend at least an hour instant messaging about everything. We even gave our phone numbers to each other for texting.

A few months after we exchanged our screen names we had learned so much about each other that we were almost like brothers. The many lines of messages we’d sent through the phones and internet was like a year of having casual conversations. Our quick typing allowed us to explain things more clearly and faster. When we were online, especially him, we had a sense of privacy because no one could listen in onto what we were saying to each other. Unfortunately having jobs has limited our current online conversations, but we still know each other very well and we still talk and hang out when we can.

Another technology aside from a form of messages is video games. I remember from the age nine or ten; I played an online game called Diablo 2. My older brother and I would take turn on the computer after school to play the game and we’d sometimes even watch each other. One day I met a player who had an account name Briggsy. We played a lot that day and we added each other to the game’s friends list. Eventually I was playing with Briggsy so much that my brother added him.

After about four or five years of playing Diablo 2, my brother and I had gained a small relationship with Briggsy along with a few other players. We always played together and had other friends that knew us both making somewhat of a group of players through the internet. We always played with Briggsy and the other players making a small community of players who knew a lot about each other. We knew Briggsy the most though. His real name was Allen and he was from Canada. He eventually moved to the US but he still played until the three of us got tired of the game. We all exchanged instant messenger screen names and now occasionally talk to each other about good old times. Thanks to that video game, my brother and I maintained a great friendship with someone that lived far away.

Another video game story is between my brother and I. I remember when I was really young; we’d always play on the Original Nintendo and Super Nintendo together. He’d mostly win, but I’d continue playing to hopefully beat him someday. As more consoles and newer games came out, we’d play them together and favorite one was Diablo 2 which I’ve already told you about.

Eventually my brother got older and moved out of the house. I had missed playing with him a lot and we ended up not talking as much anymore. It was almost like I was an only child at times. Then we both got Xbox 360s which had online playability of its games along with voice chat. So now whenever I go on it, and see my brother is online, I join his game and we either just play with each other or online with others. While playing, we chat about how life is going on and now I’m better competition for my brother, so it’s fun for both of us.

I know friends, who are part of online communities, through websites, instant messengers, or video games. They’d completely agree with me on technology bringing people together. Physically, we’re further away, but emotionally we could be so much closer.

Bran-Man’s Guide to Stable Chat Rooms With Friends

2008-01-15T16:39:00.000-08:00

Anyone with an instant messenger account has done this at least once before. Inviting friends to a chat room. But have you ever had a chat room with over 3 people and keep it from going into chaos of random statements? If you have that problem a lot, then you need to read this.

First before the conversation begins, you need to decide on an instant messenger. I use both MSN and AIM. For chat rooms, I prefer AIM because MSN is able to send small animation clips as smiles and if spammed, can lag up the chat room. So lets say you’re in AIM and you see your friends list. Look at all the people there that you may know in real life, or have really gotten to know over time of IM’s, phone calls, etc.

But anyone with AIM knows the legendary annoying noise that is dubbed in whenever messages are sent and received. It’s like the car horn of the Internet, but a little friendlier. To fix that, just go into the settings and browse through until you find IM sound settings and turn that off. Or you can always turn your sound off!

Make a mental note of the ones that are mature enough to be able to stop being annoying when you ask. Now first pick two people that you like most than the others on the list and invite them to a group conversation. Start up a conversation and get them into it but don’t tell then that you’re going to be inviting more people.

Don’t make the conversation personal or about someone’s relationship because it could cause fights and create chaos. When you guys get into a conversation, invite one more person. They’ll come in the middle of the conversation and be confused, so everyone will explain the subject or start an entire new one.

Continue this until you’ve reached a good amount of people. If you get the right amount of people you can have interesting conversations and maybe even meet new friends from other people inviting new chat room members. Just be sure to tell them to not invite too many because a spam room isn’t fun.

Color!

2007-12-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

This one time a few years ago, I was on an island in the keys. I was on an island with no permanent structures on it and filled with tropical trees. The reason I was there was because of a high adventure camping trip with my Boy Scout troop. Part of the high adventure was to spend five days on the island exploring it, going fishing, and reef diving

The fourth night, everyone was in their tents except for man and one of the leaders. It was very warm out and the previous nights the leader had slept outside on a table because he couldn’t stand the heat. I was lying beside a campfire falling asleep, but then I heard some thunder in the distance and it began to rain slightly. So the leader and I quickly put out the fire and went to our separate tents. I didn’t’ think much of it because the hurricane, Katrina, wasn’t supposed to hit us.

The next morning I woke up to violent winds and sounds of my tent ripping. My tent mate also woke up and we both sat on both sides of the tent to keep it from flying us away. I was surprisingly calm. I didn’t say anything or scream. I just sat there keeping the tent together. I felt calm and still unlike the violent wind and ocean outside. I could hear the waves smashing the shore and each other.

Eventually my tent mate and I had to abandon our tent and we walked down the beach a bit to a temporary latrine, which had solid walls. Walking down the beach was a task because the rain felt like needles and the wind made it feel like I could jus up and fly away with it. But still I walked along somewhat fascinated to see the violent ocean and nature’s wrath.

Although the water wasn’t calm that day, I was calm like it normally is. I guess you could call me blue for that. I’m calm most the time but like the water, I’m not in a perpetual state of calmness.

Now speaking of blue reminds me of another trait. Loyalty. I’ve always been fascinated by wolves and their loyalty to the pack. I even use that to gain trust from my friends by showing my loyalty and I use it with being a member of my Boy Scout troop. In the troop, all members get equal help and respect no matter what age or rank. With friends, there have been times when some of my friends are against and mad at another friend of mine for some reason. I’ll usually just stay the neutral middleman in those situations.

For example, my friend AJ, had been getting on my other friend’s Scott’s nerves. Scott eventually got other people mad at him but I just didn’t say or do anything because I knew they’d get over it eventually. I remained loyal to both AJ and Scott and now the two of them are like best friends with each other. I guess you could say my loyalty kept the “pack” together.

Since one might refer to the color blue as calm and loyal, I could call myself blue. Although blue can be depressing and I sometimes do get depressed, but there is plenty of positive to overrun the negative. Therefore the color that I would choose to represent myself would be blue.

Personal Item: Squishy Pillow

2007-12-06T06:35:00.000-08:00

If you think about it, there is at least one item in your life that appeals to you and you’d feel really bad if it got lost or taken away. The item for in this situation is my old sand pillow. I got it from Wal-Mart years ago from a huge bin of clearance. I picked out a red one because it’d be easy to find and it chose square opposed to cylinder because it could spread out more. It’s about half the size of a normal pillow but twice as soft. When you squeeze it, you can feel the grains of sand escaping from you fingers and the texture of the feeling are so comforting.
I originally got the pillow to use on my frequent camping trips because it was small but comfortable on those nights sleeping in a tent. It’s also very light in weight so it’s no burden to pack it in my night pack. It’s so soft and squishy and I always brought it on my trips. This one camping trip a long time ago, it was cold and snowy. When I went into my tent to sleep for the night I took a hand warmer and put it in the pillow. It felt so good because the pillow absorbed the heat making it like a heater in my sleeping bag.
Eventually I started throwing it in my bed to add extra comfort to my sleep. I always hold it in my arms as if it was a person there to keep me comfortable at night. The hand warmers on that camping trip made it more like a real person because of the simulated body heat. I do that now but instead I sit it on my bed warmer for a while before I go to sleep. It’s really comforting in the winter.
Whenever I play video games in my room I use it on my lap to rest my hands on or if I’m doing homework or watching TV, it’s always there. If I accidentally leave it on the floor, I find my dog half laying on it because I guess my scent is embedded into it and she always likes to rest on things that smell like me.
Over the years of use the fabric has been thinning out somewhat and if I hold it up the light now I can see the sand inside it. It’s like having the beach in my room but without the mess. Whenever I refer to it, it’s my squishy pillow from the squishy feeling of the sand sliding through it.
The reason why I like to sleep with it is because, once again, it’s like a person to me when I’m hugging it during the night. I love the comfort and presence of someone as much as anyone else might. I just like to always have someone to hug and cuddle and the pillow is the closest thing for when I’m sleeping.
I can get lonely at my house even though I have a girl friend, so I pick it up and it reminds me of her and gives me comfort. I know it’s kind of girlish or weak of me, but that’s how I roll and I’m not ashamed of it. I bet anyone will straddle a pillow at night if they’re felling lonely. I’ve just had a single pillow for years and it’s like the pillow has become a person in itself just to be there.
That’s what my girl friend, Candice, likes to do. She’ll call or text me just to give me company before bed, work, or college. I do the same for her and it can always give us the extra edge we need to keep going. It’ s a great team strategy if you think about it. Somewhat like “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine”.
But that’s what a little pillow can do for a person like me. It’s always there for me to help me sleep just like Candice is always there to help me work and do a good job with whatever the situation is. I bet anyone can find something like a squishy pillow in his or her lives.

Glass Castle Book Review

2007-11-23T20:19:00.000-08:00

THE GLASS CASATLE

A Memoir

By Jeannette Walls

One of Jeannette Wall’s first memories was her on fire at the age of three. Her parents brought her to the hospital and after six weeks in a cozy hospital Jeannette’s father, Rex Walls, ran her out without paying the bills. Although she had been almost killed by it, Jeannette still enjoyed fire and played with matches at times.

Then from that point all Jeannette remembers was moving from town to town, city to city constantly on the move. Her father explained why they were doing the “skedaddle” with exciting fantasy stories of being chased by the mobs or a secret government agency when in reality; they were poor and running from the bills.

“We were always doing the “skedaddle”, usually in the middle of the night.” Jeannette, her brother Brian, and her sister Lori were always in the car moving around with their parents. Sometimes they had a place to stay for a few weeks to a month, but then it would be the “skedaddle” again and they were on the road.

But Rex Walls wasn’t necessarily the worst father. He was always looking out for his kids. He’d help them stop being scared of monsters they’d see or dream of in their sleep by taking them demon hunting. “By now, Dad said, that old Demon had figured out that it had better not mess with Rex Walls. But if that sneaky son of a gun though t it was going to terrorize Rex Walls’s little girl, it had by God got another thing coming.” Rex always gave Jeannette courage.

While on the run, Jeannette’s younger sister, Maureen, was born. Her mother gave birth in the hospital and a few days after the birth, the father went in and did the “skedaddle” out of the hospital and continued on the road again.

The first place that Jeannette called home was a little town called Battle Mountain. She had time where her father got a job, they had money and she could get some friends. Life was poor for them, but they lived and enjoyed it compared to not having a place to call home other than an old car.

Her father decided to stay in that town for a while so he could hit it rich by creating a machine; called the Prospector, for mining so they could hit gold. Once they hit gold, Rex was going to make his family an extravagant house made completely out of glass. He made blueprints using his engineering skills and mathematical genius and was ready to build. “All we had to do was find gold, Dad said, and we were on the verge of that. Once he finished the Prospector and we struck it rich, he’d start work on our Glass Castle.”

Rex, though, would use the Glass Castle as an excuse. Like why he would quit his job or why he was out at night all the time when in reality, he probably got mad at work and went out drinking. But the children all liked living there even though for a while their parents were mad with each other. On Christmas Jeannette let everyone have one of the stars in the sky. Jeannette looked up and saw Venus. She wanted it and for Christmas, Rex gave Jeannette Venus.

Around the age of eight, a boy named Billy Deel had a crush on Jeannette. He would sometimes force himself on her and she decided to stop things. He got angry and came after with a BB gun and Jeannette used her father’s pistol. The cops found out and Rex decided to do the “skedaddle” again.

The next place they moved to was phoenix where Jeannette’s mom, Rose Marry, had inherited a house there from her mother. They didn’t even mention to the kids that their grandmother had died because they didn’t see it as important. Rose Marry was going to kick off her art career in Phoenix. She had a degree in teaching and had job at the school in Battle Mountain but she was too lazy to do it herself.

For a while they had good money with her father having a job and the mother doing artwork that probably just cost more money. The kids got new bikes and they loved life there. A few months later, the father quit and started to drink a lot. He was constantly drunk and ruined everything making the money come in less and the house became a mess and began to fall apart.

Jeannette asked for her 10^th birthday for her father to stop drinking. After several long and hard days, he stopped for a while. He decided to get everyone in a car a stay at the Grand Canyon for a while as a vacation and when they were in the car he sped up past the speedometer and blew the engine. After that, they decided to move over to Virginia with Rex’s parents.

None of the kids like Rex’s mother when they moved in. She was always mean and yelling. None of the kids liked it and their uncle Stanley who was always hitting on Jeannette. After a while, they got kicked out of the house and had to get a very poor shack that was falling apart in the worst conditions.

Rex was constantly drinking and gained the title of the town drunk. For years everyone lived through Rose Marry working selfishly on art and freezing in the winter and their father’s drunkenness. Eventually Rose Marry worked at the school for money but became more selfish and wouldn’t work. Jeannette got a job as soon as she could and found herself trying to pay for the bills, which she just couldn’t cover.

Then one night after arguing and yelling at her mother, Rex whipped Jeannette. From there on she decided she’d try to get out. She agreed with her older sister Lori to move to New York after graduating high school. Once Lori got out, Jeannette decided to move over once she finished junior year. Eventually all the kids moved to the city and later the parents.

After that the parents went on being themselves but the kids had their own lives. Rex and Rose Marry got kicked out of their home and became homeless and refused shelter from their kids. They actually enjoyed the homeless. Jeannette got her college degree and had a successful life like Lori and Brian. Maureen did become addicted to drugs and went crazy for a bit and eventually moved out to California and kept in contact through letters.

Year’s later Rex Walls died and life became boring to some of them. That’s when they realized how even though Rex was an annoying problem in life, it kept it interesting. So many things in the books seemed so unreal that you would think it’s fiction, but in reality, it’s true.

The Glass Castle

2007-10-31T06:16:00.000-07:00

“Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright” Benjamin Franklin

This quote is true as far as the empty bag part. If one has no more spirit and encouragement to go on, then they’ll probably never get anywhere and never stand out to anyone. They’ll just be sad and depressed because they’re so poor and they can’t get anywhere without the spirit to fight on. But poverty doesn’t always “deprive a man of all spirit and virtue”.
The poverty the family experiences in The Glass Castle can be very demoralizing. They’re constantly moving and in the beginning, they never had a place they stayed at long enough to call a home until a certain point in their lives. “We counted eleven places we had lived, then we lost track. We couldn’t remember the names of some of the towns or what the houses we had lived in looked like. Mostly, I remembered the inside of cars” (29).
Through all of this running around a fighting for life, the family had spirit. They still lived by morals and would always be there for each other. Even in the most dangerous of situations where there is fear, the family will still laugh together because they have each other and to them, anything can be accomplished. When Billy Deel was shooting everyone and Jeannette shot at him with a gun, they could still laugh in such a dangerous time. “We all started laughing, but it only seemed funny for a second or two, and then we stood there looking at one another in silence” (88).
Thanks to the father, in part, he was able to make the constant moving in the early part of the book that he called the “skedaddle” seem like an adventure. Instead of running away from bills, he’d make up some crazy story that made life exciting for them. “Dad called them henchmen, bloodsuckers, and the Gestapo. Sometimes he would make mysterious references to executives from Standard Oil who were trying to steal the Texas land that Mom’s family owned, and FBI agents who were after Dad for some dark episode that he never told us about because he didn’t want to put us in danger, too” (19).
Since the kids were young, these stories created the image of a fantasy, which kept their moral up and their spirit high even in times of extreme poverty.