Extremely Boring and Incredibly Agitating

               I don't like Oskar. That's the reality of it. He's always whining and crying. I find it annoying how he can't move on. And yes, everyone's story is different and maybe he loved his dad more than he let on, but I still dislike him. He spends all his time in his little man-cave listening to the same messages over and over again. I bet he can recite, word for word each message by knowledge. And for him to think that anyone will give him sympathy is like asking a porcupine to talk. It just doesn't happen. Which leads me to my next idea. This story ends with a tragic truth: life is a jack-in-a-box waiting to jump out at you. Also, life is meant to be disappointing. That is why Oskar needs to wake up. Which leads to my next point. COA is all about learning. And it starts when you are born and ends when you are dead.
              Oskar learned that life is full of disappointments. The key wasn't left for him! It didn't even belong to his dad. That's a disappointment in my opinion. And I know that Oskar dedicated so much of his time to his little entourage/journey to find the key. And that's okay. But that's why he needed the key to belong to someone else. He needed it. Just like so many everyday people need to smell the smoke and wake up. People need to realize that their life is made on the foundation of their mistakes. Thats the point of trying things over. Just like Oskar listens to his dad's messages over and over again. To learn from his mistakes. To teach his vulnerability a lesson.
              That leads to my next point. COA is all about the learning experience. Life is meant to strain your mind about the unknown. Why do children want to be fire fighters? Things that even adults think they know, but really don't. Life was the beginning of learning. Learning was the beginning of life. All is one, and one is All. Oskar needed to learn from his mistakes like I said. He needed to think about what he was doing and how he was doing it. He did things like no other 9 year-old, and with pride. But for him to think that arrogance and pride are different, then he is far beyond wrong. Everyone and anyone can be arrogant. That is the way life is. Life is COA. Life is learning. Mistakes are learning. Surviving is learning. Living is Learning.
               We live to learn. Oskar experienced what no 9 year-old should. But it happened. And he needed to roughen up and move on. But he dwelled in the land of mistakes and ended up in an emotional overload of woe and despair. He needed the time to recuperate from this issue and event, but he chose not to. And that is why he was sad. And that is why he felt like everything was wrong with his life. He was in serious need of something, someone, to tell him he needed an emotional alarm clock. He wanted and needed a disappointment to make himself aware of the ultimate lesson--living is learning.

Oskar Schell: Jeweler, Epidemiologist... Lost in this world...

                 "I wouldn't have to lie when Dad was alive. But now he's not." That's the way it is with everyone. Someone on the planet is making you the person you are. It may not seem like it, but think about it. You try and impress your friends. You maybe try to get a girl to like you. But to get that girl, you need to use your sources to become the person she likes. This is called shaping. This is the first stage of COA. When you are shaping, you are getting to the final font of your adult self. You creating the space and special mindset by which you will live within. Because of the process of COA, becoming who you are can be extremely difficult.
                  At this point, you have finished the stage of shaping. You know who you are, what your significance level is, and what you want to do with your life. If you have not completed this, please move back to the shaping stage. Oskar is not shaped, but remaking the process. Because of his wits, but not knowledge, he is finding the world a little bit different. He is altering this process and just losing himself. His dad is gone. His dad was his path. Without his dad, he can't find his way. This is called paving. The stage of Oskar's life currently. Oskar has found the things he wants to do and who he is, but doesn't know how to utilize his mistakes to find his way.
                 
                 The part of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close about Thomas and Anna meeting was extremely confusing and incredibly interesting. Thomas is very unique as his teenage self. Anna is also difficult to get a read on. I think this is due to the fact that they both need each other and can't find what they can and cannot do. They are stuck in shaping. They are dependable on each other, but want to be able to connect to the ever changing world around them.

                 The final stage of the COA process, is adult configuration and programming. You have become the constructed figure of yourself, now all you need to do is plan ahead. The intoxicating task of the COA experience. You need to help yourself create the path by which you will live by. This is known as the hardest stage because you are forcing yourself to let go of the things that you once depended on. You are almost in the real, unimaginable world. All you need to do is make the furnishings and polish your paved path. From there, you can finish the path by completing the intoxicating task. I hope this guide  was of great assistance, and that you live to enjoy your life.


                                   Yours Truly,
                                               Oskar Schell

That's just Vladek...

            Maus was a terrible book. In the sense that the writing craft was great and the way this story was made was absolutely amazing, but the story was terrible. The horrors of this book are just unbelievable. The troubles Vladek went through made me think of how the Jews did not fight for revenge... For blood. If I went through the Holocaust, I probably would've followed through on Artie's idea. I would kill myself. But what also grabbed me by the collar, was the way Vladek Spiegelman didn't give in to fate. He was a beacon of hope for many sufferers of that time.
             A question that crossed my mind related back to our Romeo and Juliet literary unit. Was it fate or free will that got Vladek through the war (This blog post is also very minimally entering Maus II)? I couldn't help but think why was he one of the few 1000's that survived? Why did he not perish in the gas gas chambers of Auschwitz? Vladek may have been lead by fate, but his ingenious schemes of smuggling and trade are what I think really kept him alive. In the situations he endured, was he not the one that used his ideas to smuggle himself and Anja away? He was a very righteous character and never gave up hope. Maybe that is why he survived. But that is also free will, proving that this story was mostly about Vladek's hope and genuine ability to think through situations.
             Vladek gave everyone he knew something to think about. Something that would remind them of home. That was what everyone liked Vladek. He gave them a word that is the most powerful weapon of all. Hope. He gave them hope. Hope that would carry them to the greatest corners of their lives. The kind of hope, that got them running from Auschwitz as free men and women. Vladek could have argued the way he does now back then, but that would have killed many of his closest friends. And life goes on...

Blog-ger #12: Lament

Deirdre is very different. She is weirdly drawn to Luke, but at the same time, she wants to believe he's evil. In a sense he is. He is a mysterious, possibly half-bred, faerie. Deirdre is the kind of character that would deal with Luke, but at the same time James is... Different. He seems as if he is almost in competition with Luke to get with Deirdre. And also the granna. She some how is very accomodated with the faeries but refuses to believe they are a big threat.

James is very important. He is Deirdre's best friend. He also seems like he really wants to be with her. Like he is always spending as much time as possible with her. He looks like the kind of guy that will care about his best and closest friends, but i feel that their is something different about him. He... Wants to show something else but seems that he will wait for the right time. Which I feel will not be a good time. At all...

Granna. She knows a lot about the faeries. But she never panics. She wants to educate Deirdre, but she somehow shows that she is very pro-faerie. Like she wants Luke to leave Deirdre alone, but in order for her to have things move on, she wants Luke to linger. She honestly scares me. She shows her affection for Deirdre in a very rude manner. This makes me feel that maybe she doesn't really love her...

Love is Like Heaven, But it Can Hurt Like Hell/R & J Movie

               Romeo is such a lamo! "Oh, I'm Romeo and the only thing I think about is love." Or: "For Romeo's dreaded hours may be spent with thoughts only of the love received by others. Or if rejected in the art of attractiveness, send me forthright to the ranks of peasants and beggars. For there, I may dream to be the holy knight of handsomeness, swashing swords and bucklers with evil oppressing foes. Hence, my hours of anguish may end with only the thought of donning thine sword unto my breast and tearing through the layers of my skin as an onion once might." See what I mean?
               Romeo is spending all his time worrying about love. Love is like heaven but it can hurt like hell. This is my catch phrase that is pretty self explanatory. Essentially, Romeo can get on with his life, or somehow, somewhere, sometime, he will get a kick in the *** for falling in love. Take Rosaline. She is the unheard-of character that Romeo previously fell for. She is a Capulet that leaves Romeo. Romeo is now under the influence that love is so strong, addicting, and pleasant that you can't live without it.

Blog-ger #11: Red is For Remembrance

            Stacey is really having a hard time coping with her soul mate's death. I expected someone's death to be demoralizing, but she is totally head over heels. Jacob sounded like a great guy. Stacey sounded like she was going to eventually marry him. But now that he's gone, she's got a lot bigger problems...
            This guy Tim sounds like a real stalker. He actually left his clique of friends just to get rejected by Stacey. But I feel like he doesn't intend on stopping there. Stacey lied and said that she had a boyfriend, when obviously she didn't. This blew me off my toes because I was expecting her to break out into tears. It seems like Jacob caused her a lot of stress and the way she is talking about him doesn't give me a good feeling. Stacey shouldn't be using her issues to wiggle out of situations. Maybe she would have said she had a boyfriend even if she didn't know Jacob, but the way that she used him as a shield to save herself was really right-off-the-bat.
            Amber isn't helping either. Amber is Stacey's best friend and has been since they met in high school. But now that they're in college, Amber needs to be really there for Stacey with all that's going on. The way that Amber is acting, as if nothing really happened, pissed me off. Like a lot. How can she be so selfish when her best friend is going through probably her most traumatic experience. Amber needs to be Stacey's guardian angel, but when she's busy sucking on her friend's popsicles and bragging to Stacey, she isn't getting anything done. At all...

Visual Art Response

             Icarus. The story of a man told right through the very thick acryllic paint that made him. That small red dot showing his very soul. Icarus is a painting that was made by the french painter, Henri Matisse. Matisse was a very famed artist. Icarus was obviously one of his signature paintings. It tells the story of a silhouette that fought for his freedom. I think the art shows that no matter what, fighting for what you deserve is right. Fighting for the 99% is what you should be pumping. Make a motto, do whatever it takes. Because what you fight fr is what makes you. It displays your persona.

Extra Credit Option

When I see the Heart of Icarus,
I see the sun rising and setting,
I see that army of freedom fighters.
I see that man walk atop the hill,
And say,
We did it.
We did it.
We went hand in hand and fought off that oppressing force of,
Distraught.
Of disrespect.
Of differing chances and opportunities.
We stormed the forges of hate themselves, and we,
We accomplished what we have set out to do.
Icarus, has inspired the minds of all guardian angels,
And we,
Did it...

A Response For the Record

             When I think of a cardboard box, I think of a man or a woman, deep in the tidal waves of poverty, hiding. Hiding from what they never wanted to be afraid of...Themselves. Everyday, they cower to the back shadows of their makeshift box of what their lives have become.
              Reading "Bilingual in a Cardboard Box" made me want to say something that would take everyones' spirits and bring them to the light. The light of the sun rising and setting. The light of happiness, and not the despair of the darkness. I feel like this poem really showed how the different opinions a speaker can have on one subject, can almost be contradicting! The speaker, Javier Pina, demonstrated the ways a double sided poem is very unique. The way he put opposites of the life of Mexicans and Americans in one poem made me think. Is he the kind of person that can only love their homeland? Their own native culture? But what if he wanted to say something else? Maybe he wanted to say that the eyes, ears and speech of Americans can be blind, deaf and mute. That maybe the way we may see a youngster beaten to death in America, and having guilty bystanders walk by. That maybe the way we may see a youngster beaten to death in Mexico, and having other Mexicans try to save the kid. What if Javier Pina wanted to tell us something about his view on how the world can be tested for its plausible involvement?

ALL STAR NOMINATION!!!!!! YOU KNOW YOU WANNA HEAR IT!!!!!!!Or read it. Either way is really fine. Your choice... NO PRESSURE

          I VOTE NATHAN. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                   HE EXHIBITS A VERY UNIQUE WRITING STYLE THAT I RARELY EVER SEE. HE WAS ABLE TO CREATE A SITUATION ABOUT HIS STORY, BUT IT WASN'T ACTUALLY PART OF THE STORY. THAT IS A VERY DIFFERENT WAY TO INTERACT WITH YOUR BLOG AND I THINK HE HAS DONE A GREAT JOB SHOWING WHAT THIS BLOG REALLY MEANS TO HIM. EXCELLENT JOB NATHANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN...!!!...!!!...!!!...!!!

Blog-ger#10: Peak

        Josh made a really bold move. I thought that was the end of Peak's trip, I thought that Peak was going home. But oh noooooo!!!!! Josh had faked his blink and played a cruel trick. Peak was obviously upset and didn't realize it was a trick, but none the less, it happened. Josh faked Peak's removal off the mountain, just to please the other climbers. Earlier on in the story, the other climbers were aghast to find that all of their money that was used to climb Everest was money funding Peak. This didn't settle well in the other climbers' stomachs, but it was the daring truth. So, the only way Josh was to bolster his chances of getting Peak to the summit, was to try and call the bluff of the other climbers. This was a terrible idea. Although, I think Josh made the right choice. He was the one to put the news out there anyway, so he must have had a plan. That is a very interesting trick and worked very well on the oblivious climbers. I do also think that the way he executed it was a little harsh. Peak was very demoralized and not particularly expecting it.

Blog-ger#9: Peak

     I think this book can help a lot of people. The style and craft of the book, can actually relate to a lot of kids our age. Not many books can do that. Peak is the kind of character that you really feel like you can be put into their shoes the most. He has the same social life as a lot of people. There's always someone who's a maggot, that you really hate, but they won't leave you alone, even though you don't even talk to them. For me this is someone like Chance. For Peak, it's Holly. Even for other people, I'm their maggot. I feel like everyone has a maggot and they don't really look at it in that aspect.
     Another perspective of the book that is open wide for connections is person you can really talk to, that won't freak out at whatever you say or do, unless it's in a comedic manner or POV. That being said, I think that if your reading this, that you are already thinking of someone that you can really talk to and won't freak out at whatever you say or do, unless it's in a comedic manner or POV. For me, it's someone like Cassidy or Zach. For Peak, it's Sun-Jo. Everyone has someone they can talk to about anything in the whole world.
      Something else to look into is the admirable figure in our lives. Almost all people aspire to be the person they look up to. Someone who knows your out there in the world, and they are trying to help you, and trying to inspire you to do things and to take risks. For me, this is probably someone like my brother. He is always ahead of me in sports and almost everything... except maturity, but that's not important. For Peak, it's his dad. Everybody knows that they are either being admired or trying to admire someone. Everyone has someone that makes them dream of the future or what they hope to become.