Sound and Fury

In the documentary "Sound and Fury" the deaf people didn't want their deaf child to get a cochlear implant so they could hear. Their reasoning being, they wanted their child to be a part of deaf culture, and if the child could hear they would no longer be a part of deaf culture. This makes no sense to me, why on earth would they not be a part of deaf culture anymore? The child is 5, so she's been deaf and signing for about 4 years, she wants to hear other children, she can almost speak plain english. If I learn a new language I don't suddenly forget I've learned english. Even more so, the parents are afraid she won't sign, but they are deaf!!! She will talk with her friends and sign with her parents! what is the problem with that? I don't understand how illogically they were thinking, just because your child speaks doesn't mean they aren't deaf. Those parents were irresponsable and frankly quite stupid for not expanding their child's horizons.

Fear (ooooh scary...)

Have you ever been in an unusual location, you don't know the terrain/layout, and you find yourself facing a dark expance of room? I hope I'm not with you... I might be a little on the freaked out side.
   
I am afeared (making up words?) of extremely dark locations that I have no previous experiance with. My imagination fills these expances with horrible, horrible things that I'd rather never encounter.
It's not that I'm afraid of every little thing, it's just that if it's dark and creepy looking, I'm gonna be a little creeped out and I won't wanna enter the room.

BnL's War on Drugs and the American Lifestyle

well that took a while... but I'm finally posting! 
Lyrics-Courier      My thoughts-Helvetica
Barenaked Ladies - War On Drugs

Verse 1
She likes to sleep with the radio on
So she can dream of her favorite song
The one that no one has ever sung since she was small

She'll never know that she made it up
She had a soul and we ate it up
Thrown away like a paper cup
The music falls

The only flaw in her detailed plan
Is where she wins back the love of her man
Everyone knows that he's never coming back

He took her heart and she took his name
He couldn't stand taking all the blame
He left her only with guilt and shame and then she cracked

This verse encapsulates the common distress in modern day relationships. People get married too soon and end up getting divorces, people think they are in love but don't wait to see if they truly are. And when one person can't stand it any more and cuts off their relationship, their partner is usually pretty emotionally damaged.

Chorus
Won't it be dull when we rid ourselves
Of all these demons haunting us
To keep us company

The American people live off fear and hatred. Those demons that haunt us can be anything from this months rent, to that dog next door that just won't shut up. Everyone has these demons, they are almost impossible to completely eradicate, they are our constant prick, keeping us awake to society.

Verse 2
In the dream I refuse to have
She falls asleep in a lukewarm bath
We're left to deal with the aftermath again

On behalf of humanity
I will fight for your sanity
How profound such profanity can be 

Steven Page (lead singer for BnL) sees the damage to society, all the obscenity we plaster on everything (blood and gore, violence, sex, ect.), and he is trying to fight it. This song tries to put some of the nastiness into the light, in order to protect those who can't take the morbidity and take their lives to escape it.

Chorus
Won't it be dull when we rid ourselves
Of all these demons haunting us
To keep us company

Won't it be odd to be happy like we
Always thought we're supposed to feel
But never seem to be

The happy that people never seem to be spawns from the euphoria you get from vanquishing your various demons. That euphoria is short-lived and quickly replaced with a dull ache for something new.
 
Verse 3
Near where I live there's a viaduct
Where people jump when they're out of luck
Raining down on the cars and trucks below

They've put a net there to catch their fall
Like it'll stop anyone at all
What they don't know is when nature calls, you go

They say that Jesus and mental health
Are just for those who can help themselves
But what good is that when you live in hell on earth?

From the very fear that makes you want to die
Is just the same as what keeps you alive
It's way more trouble than some suicide is worth

The endless battle between people who commit suicide and those who try to stop it is, in a way, useless. People who commit suicide (those who really truly wanted to die, not just get attention or whatever experts say) wouldn't ever be persuaded to stop. The people who kill themselves usually have too many demons to handle, they don't know how to stop them from piling up, and sooner or later their demons overwhelm them.
 
Chorus
Won't it be dull when we rid ourselves
Of all these demons haunting us
To keep us company

Won't it be odd to be happy like we
Always thought we're supposed to feel
But never seem to be
 
Tag
Hard to admit I fought the war on drugs
My hands were tied and the phone was bugged
Another died and the world just shrugged it off

It's a very deep song for very shallow times. People these days are greedy, and with greed comes demons. These demons plague everyone everywhere. A few demons keep your life interesting and just a tad stressful, too many demons and you are consumed in your own guilt and shame. And once you crack no net will ever catch your fall into your own demise.

Sorry for the depressing topic... for some relief, scroll to the end of the page and check out the Puppy of the day. Aww, they're so cute :D

 --A_Walk


so if you wanna embed an Mp3 file use this code.

(<)embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=[MP3_file]" height="27" width="320"></embed(>)

sans the parentheses just the < > at the front and end.

Writing! A_Walk style

Writing has always been a challenge for me. I have great ideas for papers, I have great ideas for the overall flow and meaning of the papers, I even have a (I'd like to think) decent enough grasp of the English language to make my writing interesting and more enjoyable. But when it comes to actually printing the words onto the page for everyone to read, I freeze. To quote the Dr. Tom Romano, I don't "trust the gush" and I can't get the words out.

I'll try "trust-ing the gush" right now because, like countless other times in my writing, I've run out of things to say. I've lost my train of thought.


"The gush"- I have this terrible procrastination reflex that kicks in when writing. Throughout my years in school I've built this hatred for writing, which I really wish I didn't have. Every word I type screams at me to go do something meaningless and 'fun' be it browsing the interwebs or playing a time-wasting round of Angry Birds (which is really a very boring and mindless game). 'fun' is in quotes because every time I've ever looked back and replayed the hours I've wasted on the web I find that those moments were quite useless, extraneous, and quite the waste of my life.

I post this blog at 11:00 at night when I could have written it three hours earlier, what have I been doing you ask? Well there's this game called Exit Path 2, it's pretty well done, fun and different gameplay, that took about 30 minutes. There's a plethora of trips down to my kitchen to make tea, take dayquil (I have a mild head cold which is also hindering my writing drive), talk to my mom, wander aimlessly, and use the bathroom (which is quite silly because I have a bathroom upstairs that's much closer). Oh, and don't forget the biggest time-waster of them all (for most kids, not me, necessarily), that's right, the almighty Facebook.

Out of all my activities, this blog post probably took me the least amount of time to accomplish. So why don't I just do it and get it over with? Because I have acquired, over the years, an imaginary writers block, I think I can't write easily or well so I can't. My mind has taken a mental fallacy and turned it into a physical reality, and if I ever have any hope of overcoming my own mental ineptitude I must go deeper into my writing and force myself to realize that writing is not a chore, it is a blessing.




Hey, that last sentence sounded a little familiar...

--A_Walk

Inaugural adresses and their hidden complexities

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The above chart shows the top ten words used in the last 10 (dated) presidents' inaugural adresses.

Most of the words shown are fairly typical and expected. What struck me as odd; however, is the common words found accross candidate's individual speeches. The word 'time' was used in all 10 of the president's speeches while the words America and American were only used 5 and 6 times, respectively. I would have expected the president of America and the American people would have adressed those words more than what 'time' it was. But of the six presidents who did use America or American in their speech, they used it frequently.

Another interesting note, all of the 10 presidents used religious context when giving their adress. Everyone mentioned God and His influence on their presidency to come. I found this hypocritical because aren't church and state separated? And why is it always praying to God? Why not pray to Allah? Or how about praying to the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Government always embodies religion, why haven't they stopped? Because the majority of their followers (voters) are of Christian decent.

The cloud charts hold more secrets and surprises, I'd recommend you check them out! Inaugural Adresses cloud chart

-- A_Walk

"Skunk Dreams" Louise Erdrich

     This past June my family and I went on an amazing camping trip. We packed all our necessary items -- clothes, food, equipment, and the like -- and took off across the mid-west in search of a higher elevation and scenery that isn't so flat and corn-filled. Traveling through the mid-west via Nebraska sure wasn't going to provide us with the altitude and terrain we desired so we plowed straight on through to Colorado. Whilst in Colorado we hiked through the mountains and camped in the wilderness. We saw everything from mountain streams to porcupines and marmots. As Ms. Erdrich would call it, we got outside. Not just to the urbanized fields, or to a remote city park, we ventured out into the middle of America's backyard and simply lived. 

     Though the experience and the trip was real enough, the whole thing seemed oddly dream-like. It's too surreal and spectacular that I just can't believe I'm actually there. Camping makes me feel free, everything is as it should be, nature and I are working as one. It is my paradise, the only place I feel I really, truly belong.

     I completely and totally understand Louise's feeling of longing for something as simple as a horizon, or of her love for the sound of the trees, or even her esoteric fascination with skunks and the content of their dreams. She simply has found the thing in life that makes her feel at home and even at peace, no matter what form of animal has crawled on to you to get a good night's sleep.

--A_Walk

"Talk of the Town" John Updike & Susan Sontag

These essays, written by John Updike and Susan Sontag, were both in response to the tragic happenings of September 11th, 2001. The essays themselves were both very well written, but the Updike essay and the Sontag essay had complete opposite messages.

The Updike essay talked about how it felt to experience such a horrendous event. He explains how the whole event doesn't ever seem quite real, that television clouds the truth and dulls the senses. "... there persisted the notion that, as on television, this was not quite real; it could be fixed" I think this is typical human behavior, something tremendously bad happens and our brain fails to wrap around the occurrence, so we imagine it wasn't as bad as it seems and that we can all sleep peacefully and in the morning everything will be right as rain. In my opinion, his essay is very childish and immature. Instead of face the reality of the World Trade Center collapsing, killing thousands, he'd rather remark on how there seems to be a lack of planes in the air. How can such an event slip right through his mind and not even strike any chord of thought more than, "we have only the mundane duties of survivors -- to pick up the pieces, to bury the dead, to take more precautions, to go on living." It infuriates me to think that we can witness such a catastrophe and move on saying, 'Well, I guess no one is traveling by plane any time soon... let's go have lunch.' The notion that it will all be just peachy if we just get back to normal is naive and shouldn't be tolerated by anyone older than seven.

Susan Sontag's essay, on the other hand, makes complete and total sense to me. The American populous can't just be herded around like a bunch of blind mules. Calling our enemies "cowards"  and throwing out propaganda like "Our country is strong", "America is not afraid. Our spirit is unbroken." over and over isn't going to fix what happened. People need to be able to see for themselves and not be shrouded by the government's swaddling. She makes some excellent points, we need to not dwell on what happened, but rather find the problem and fix it. She states, " Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together." There is a time and a place for grieving, and there is a time and a place to buckle down and fix our country. Ms. Sontag is right, the time for grieving and morale boosting is over. Now is the time to fix our country.

--A_Walk

Me, myself, and I. A slight intro of A_Walk

Hey fellow bloggers! Welcome to my blog, I'm A_Walk (aka Alex Walker) and I'll be your resident blogger for this url. I'm a senior in high school at McFarland High School and I'm blogging for my AP Composition class. I'll be posting about various essays, articles, books, and other fun literary topics.

I plan on going to college to become a mechanical engineer, I love math and science, but a little writing on the side never hurt anyone. I've taken/will be taking all the standard science and math classes that are offered and I can't wait to use my knowledge to solve some problems to improve machinery. As an engineer/mathematician, I love to solve problems (Sudoku, Ken Ken, Slither Link, crosswords, logic puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles, you name it I'll probably want to solve it) I have a talent for looking at things in a different way and seeing problems or solutions others do not.

Another activity I enjoy is soccer. I've been playing soccer since I was six and I've been reffing soccer for three years. I play for my high school team and I also play indoor and pick-up games in the off season. Soccer is such a beautiful game, it is a moving, continuous chess match, every player is important and every pass of the ball and minute of the game has purpose. Never does the clock stop, and rarely does the action stop for more than 10 seconds. sure you might not score many goals, but soccer isn't about the goals, it's about how you score those goals. I love soccer for it's dynamic nature and complexity of play.

Music is also a large part of my life. I am always listening to some form of tunes, whether it's Pandora Radio, my own playlists, or just general radio stations. Not only am I listening, I am also singing. I am in A-Capella Choir at school and I perform with the Blue Notes and the Kittens Mittens (locally famous jazz choirs). My favorite kind of music ranges from techno, Daft Punk and Blue Man Group, to alternative rock, BnL and Ok Go, to jazz, Frank Sinatra and Jack Johnson. If you ever need a new band to listen to just let me know, I'll give you some ideas.

As a member of AP Composition, I plan on improving my writing skills, forming better sentence structure, and expanding my voluptuous vocabulary. I've taken a couple of English classes in my high school career I might not be an English die-hard, but I still want to be a contributing, literate member of society, I hope this blog and my class can help me achieve these goals.

--A_Walk