Relationship to School

As we discussed in class, school can be compared to a prison in many ways. We are segregated into our own groups. There are the middle class white kids, the guadsters, the emos, the list can go on and on. No matter how much anyone wants to admit it, we all stick to our segregated groups and secretly judge each other. Maybe this isn't 100% accurate for everyone but that's how I see it. "Immigrants in Our Own Land" reminds me that high school and prisons aren't so far off from each other. They may be two very different types of establishments but the people in them have the same types of habits because we are all human. 
School can be an extremely positive thing but it can also have very negative effects on people but it all depends on your own personal attitude, as the same goes for prison some people go in with an "I don't care" attitude and leave with an "Oh my god, I'm so glad to get out of this hellhole! I'm never going back there again" attitude. And then some just go even more downhill after the whole experience. It depends on whether you decide to be a positive or a negative person. School is the place that tests you most in your young life because you are thrown into a sea of asshole teenagers and no matter who you are, you come out being different because 1) the influences other students have on you and 2) you're own personal growth as these 4 years pass and you grow into the person you want to be. Although we all think school sucks most of the time it is so important in so many ways. Besides the obvious reason of education, school gives us so much more than what we think about on a regular basis. It's a place where we can be ourselves (or not be ourselves) away from our home and families. It's a place where you get to know yourself and see what you like and don't like in people. Home schooled kids don't get those sort of experiences. We are extremely lucky that the government forces us to go to school because if we didn't go to school then we would all be extremely awkward and antisocial kids, in jail or Amish. (No offense to the Amish but I mean, come on, they're mostly that weird because they never had the chance to socialize with people outside of their circle). We are forced to communicate with people who aren't like us at all and make friends with the most unlikely of people. 
So I guess that I'd consider myself a curious native. Because High School is constantly making me question every aspect of life. 
Anthropologists should just come to Righetti to gather information.

A poem that doesn't suck by Stephen Chbosky

once on a yellow piece of paper,

he wrote a poem

and he called it "chops"

because that was the name of his dog.

and that's what it was about

and his teacher gave him an A

and a gold star

and his mother hung it on he door

and read it to his aunts

that was the year father tracy

took all the kids to the zoo

and let them sing on the bus

that was the year his little sister was born

with tiny toenails and no hair

and his mother and father kissed a lot

and the girl around the corner sent him a

valentine signed with a row of x's

and he had to ask his father what the x's meant

and his father always tucked him in at night

and was always there to do it

once on a piece of white paper with blue lines

he wrote a poem called "autumn"

because that was the name of the season

snd that's what it was all about

and his teacher gave him an A

and asked him to write more clearly

and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door

because of its new paint

and the kids told him

that father tracy smoked cigars

and left butts on the pews

and sometimes they would burn holes

that was the year his sister got glasses

with thick lenses and black frames

and the girl around the corner laughed

when he asked her to go see santa claus

and the kids told him why

his mother and father kissed a lot

and his father never tucked him in at night

and got mad

when he cried for him to do it

once on a piece of paper torn from his notebook

he wrote a poem

called "innocence; a question"

because that was the question about his girl

and that's what is was all about

and his professor gave him an A

and a strange steady look

and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door

becaue he never showed her

that was the year that father tracy died

and he forgot how the end

of apostle's creed went

and he caught his sister

making out on the back porch

and his mother and father never kissed

or even talked

and the girl around the corner

wore too much makeup

that made him cough when he kissed her

but he kissed her anyway

because that was the thing to do

and at three a.m he tucked himself into bed

his father snoring soundly

that's why on the back of a brown paper bag

he tried another poem

and he called it "absolutely nothing"

becaue that's what it was really about

and he gave himself an A

and a slash on each damned wrist

and he hung it on that bathroom door

because he didn't think

he could reach the kitchen

I like this poem because the setting slowly progresses throughout the poem starting from the simple life of a child then turning into the the reality of the real world and the boy in the poem suddenly just cracks and kills himself because he sees everything change around him in a shocking and saddening way.

The First Poem I Ever Wrote in French (November 2013)

J'aime le froid
mais pas comme ca
Mes doigts sont tristes
Mais Je ne suis pas une pesimiste
Ils sont rouges et ils sont moches
Le probleme est que je n'ai pas de poche
Je m'ai jamais vue le temps comme ca
Et franchement, je n'aime pas
Pendant que j'ecris, mes doigts restent froids
Et maintenant aussi mes jambes et mes bras
Maintenant c'est l'automne et bientot l'hiver
Il pleure sur la ville comme je suis Jacques Prevert
Ou est le soleil? Pas ici and pas la-bas...
Mais je suis certaine que mes doigts vont rester froids.

It sounds really weird in English but I swear in French it rhymes and makes a lot more sense 

TRANSLATION:
I love the cold
But not like this
My hands are sad
But I'm not a pesimist
They're red and they're ugly
The problem is I don't have pockets
I've never seen weather like this
And Frankly, I don't like it
My hands are still cold while I write
And now my legs and my arms, also
Now it's Fall and it'll soon be Winter
It's raining in the city like I'm Jacques Prevert (A French poet who wrote a poem called It's raining in my heart like it rains in the city)
Where is the sun? Not here and not over there...
But I'm positive that my hands will stay cold

Analyzing Song Lyrics (Riptide by Vance Joy)

This is my favorite song at the moment. It has such a beautiful tune to it and it's just one of those songs that make you want to dance like nobody's watching, that put aside I've listened to these lyrics over and over again trying to understand what Vance Joy is actually trying to say with "All my friends are turning green, you're the magician's assistant in their dream and they come unstuck" or "lady running down to the riptide, taken away to the dark side, I wanna be your left hand man".
He's obviously talking about a woman he has interest in because he sings "I just wanna, I just wanna know. If you're gunna, If you're gunna stay. I can't have it, I can't have it any other way" but from aside from that the lyrics make no sense to me.
My theory is he's just another hipster writing a song because it's ironic, doesn't make obvious sense and it just sounds nice. Any other theories out there?

Fahrenheit 451 NOTES pages 120-130

•  "A shotgun blast went off in his leg every time he put it down and he thought, you're a fool, a damn fool, an awful fool, an idiot, an awful idiot.." page 121 Montag hurt his own leg when he was scorching the other firemen and the mechanical hound, this could be a big disadvantage when trying to run from the police.
• "Montag took the four remaining books and hopped, jolted, hopped his way down the alley.." page 122 Montag is heading somewhere with his few remaining books. To turn himself in? To Faber's house?
• "Police alert. Wanted: Fugitive in city. He committed murder and crimes against the State. Name: Guy Montag. Occupation: Fireman. Last seen..." page 124 Soon he will be tracked down by the police.
• " And then he realized that he was, indeed, running toward Faber's house, instinctively. But Faber couldn't hide him; it would be suicide even to try." page 124 Montag is clearly running out of options if he runs to Faber's house it would just kill him and the poor, old English professor. 
• Montag stumbles upon a car full of teenagers telling "Let's get him" because he was walking out in public and he thinks "I wonder if they were the ones who killed Clarisse!" page 129
• Montag arrives to Faber's house and as Faber sees him he says "At least you were a feel about all the right things," said Faber. " I thought you were dead. The autocapsule I gave you-"          "Burnt." page 130

Fahrenheit 451 NOTES pages 110-120

• "Beatty never drove, but he was driving tonight, slamming the Salamander around corners, leaning forward high on the driver's throne, his massive black slicker flapping out behind so that he seemed a great black bat flying above the engine..." page 109 We can foreshadow that something bad might happen based on the tone of the text and the adjectives used such as "slamming" and "black". And the the fact that the text mentions that Beatty never usually drives which means that that certain night was not like others.
• Beatty ends up driving the Salamander to Montag's house which could only mean one thing, they are there to burn him down. 
• "Didn't I hint enough when I sent the Hound around your place?" page 113 So that's why the mechanical hound was outside their house on that one rainy day.
• Beatty is making Montag burn his own house and he actually felt good about it. page 116
• "When you're quite finished," said Beatty behind him,"you're under arrent" page 117
• It was Mildred and her friends who turned Montag in. page 117
• Beatty found Montag's earpiece page 118
• Montag killed the mechanical hound.page 120

Vocabulary: Fall List 8

1. Ruinous- disastrous                                                                                                                           EX: Panem is a futuristic and ruinous land.
2. Quaver- tremble with emotion or nervousness                                                                                 EX: When Teresa entered The Glade and couldn't remember anything, she couldn't stop quavering. 
3. Certitude- absolute certainty                                                                                                             EX: The sorting hat placed Harry in the Gryffindor house with certitude.
4. Notch- an indention                                                                                                                           EX: One could call Harry Potter's scar a notch on his forehead.
5. Perspire- sweat                                                                                                                                   EX: It seemed as though Thomas would never stop perspiring in the Maze.
6. Manifest- Clear or obvious                                                                                                                 EX: Lord Voldemort had a manifest evil mind.
7. Latrine- toilet in camps                                                                                                                     EX: The Glade had only latrines.
8. Uttered- make a sound with one's voice.                                                                                           EX: Gally uttered a cry of disapproval when the griever got him.
9. Parry- Ward off (with attack)                                                                                                             EX: The Gladers parried grievers with various homemade weapons.
10. Oracle- a priest acting medium to give advice or prophecy                                                               EX: Harry's patronum acted as an oracle when Harry needed it most.
11. Conscious- aware                                                                                                                               EX: Tris made a conscious decision to join Dauntless.
12. Feign- Pretend to be affected, fake                                                                                                   EX: WICKED was just a huge group of feigns.
13. Leisure- free time                                                                                                                               EX: The people of District 12 never has much leisure time.
14. Conjure- produce something                                                                                                              EX: Conjuring up a spell isn;t as easy as it sounds.
15. Anesthetized- Induce a loss or consiousness                                                                                      EX: WICKED has a history of anesthetizing Thomas during the trials.
16. Tyranny- cruel government                                                                                                                EX: The Capital was a tyranny in the districts eyes.
17. Folly- foolishness                                                                                                                                EX: Eatiing the poisonous berries on T,V, in front of Panem was seen as a great folly to President Snow.
18. Dreary- sad                                                                                                                                          EX: Cedric Diggery died a dreary in the Goblet of Fire.
19. Grotesque- disgusting                                                                                                                          EX: Edward saw Jacob as a grotesque werewolf.                                                   
20. Reckoning- calculating something                                                                                                      EX: WICKED is not, by any reckoning, good.