Sunday, May 26, 2013

My Three Best Posts

These are my three best posts from this semester. The three of these have the most pageviews and I enjoyed writing these the most.

Lit Analysis 6
Poetry Analysis
Lit Analysis 8

I also just wanted to include my senior project so you know what I've been working on!

Senior Project :)

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Senior Project :)

For my senior project I have been working on designing my dream house that I hope to be living in one day :) For the past several years I have been very interested in houses; admiring designs, layouts and interior details. My dream has always been to bring my dreams to reality. All semester I have been working on the design I would love to live in one day! During the final I will be showing everyone the layout I have designed for my house. I will also be making a senior scrapbook on a DVD with music and all the pics from my childhood! (The hardest part is bringing down the number of pictures I have so they can fit on a DVD)

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

Three engineers are driving in a car; an electrical engineer, a chemical engineer, and a software engineer. The car stops running, and they pull off onto the shoulder of the road to inspect it. The electrical engineer suggests that they strip down the electronics of the car in an attempt to trace where a fault may have occurred. The chemical engineer suspects that the fuel is becoming emulsified and suggests that they focus on the fuel system. The software engineer suggests closing all the windows, getting out, getting back in, and opening all the windows again to see if that helps.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

A mathematician, a physicist and an engineer are each given $50 to measure the height of a building. The mathematician buys a ruler and a sextant, and by determining the angle subtended by the building a certain distance away from the base, he establishes the height of the building. The physicist buys a heavy ball and a stopwatch, climbs to the top of the building and drops the ball. By measuring the time it takes to hit the bottom, he establishes the height of the building. The engineer puts $40 into his pocket. By slipping the doorman the other ten and asking the building's height, he establishes the height of the building.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

A Mathematician was put in a room. The room contains a table and three metal spheres about the size of a softball. He was told to do whatever he wants with the balls and the table in one hour. After an hour, the balls are arranges in a triangle at the center of the table. The same test is given to a Physicist. After an hour, the balls are stacked one on top of the other in the center of the table. Finally, an Engineer was tested. After an hour, one of the balls is broken, one is missing, and he's carrying the third out in his lunchbox.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Macbeth Act 4

The witches are vaguely absurd figures, with their rhymes and beards and capering, but they are also clearly sinister, possessing a great deal of power over events. Are they simply independent agents playing mischievously and cruelly with human events? Or are the “weird sisters” agents of fate, betokening the inevitable? The word weird descends etymologically from the Anglo-Saxon word wyrd, which means “fate” or “doom,” and the three witches bear a striking resemblance to the Fates, female characters in both Norse and Greek mythology. Perhaps their prophecies are constructed to wreak havoc in the minds of the hearers, so that they become self-fulfilling. It is doubtful, for instance, that Macbeth would have killed Duncan if not for his meeting with the witches. On the other hand, the sisters’ prophecies may be accurate readings of the future. After all, when Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane at the play’s end, the soldiers bearing the branches have not heard of the prophecy. Whatever the nature of the witches’ prophecies, their sheer inscrutability is as important as any reading of their motivations and natures. The witches stand outside the limits of human comprehension. They seem to represent the part of human beings in which ambition and sin originate—an incomprehensible and unconscious part of the human psyche. In this sense, they almost seem to belong to a Christian framework, as supernatural embodiments of the Christian concept of original sin. Indeed, many critics have argued that Macbeth, a remarkably simple story of temptation, fall, and retribution, is the most explicitly Christian of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. If so, however, it is a dark Christianity, one more concerned with the bloody consequences of sin than with grace or divine love. Perhaps it would be better to say that Macbeth is the most orderly and just of the tragedies, insofar as evil deeds lead first to psychological torment and then to destruction. The nihilism of King Lear, in which the very idea of divine justice seems laughable, is absent in Macbeth—divine justice, whether Christian or not, is a palpable force hounding Macbeth toward his inevitable end. The witches’ prophecies allow Macbeth, whose sense of doom is mounting, to tell himself that everything may yet be well. For the audience, which lacks Macbeth’s misguided confidence, the strange apparitions act as symbols that foreshadow the way the prophecies will be fulfilled. The armored head suggests war or rebellion, a telling image when connected to the apparition’s warning about Macduff. The bloody child obliquely refers to Macduff’s birth by cesarean section—he is not “of woman born”—attaching a clear irony to a comment that Macbeth takes at face value. The crowned child is Malcolm. He carries a tree, just as his soldiers will later carry tree branches from Birnam Wood to Dunsinane. Finally, the procession of kings reveals the future line of kings, all descended from Banquo. Some of those kings carry two balls and three scepters, the royal insignia of Great Britain—alluding to the fact that James I, Shakespeare’s patron, claimed descent from the historical Banquo. The mirror carried by the last figure may have been meant to reflect King James, sitting in the audience, to himself.

Macbeth Act 5 Notes

The rapid tempo of the play’s development accelerates into breakneck frenzy in Act 5, as the relatively long scenes of previous acts are replaced by a flurry of short takes, each of which furthers the action toward its violent conclusion on the battlefield outside Dunsinane Castle. We see the army’s and Malcolm’s preparation for battle, the fulfillment of the witches’ prophecies, and the demises of both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Lady Macbeth, her icy nerves shattered by the weight of guilt and paranoia, gives way to sleepwalking and a delusional belief that her hands are stained with blood. “Out, damned spot,” she cries in one of the play’s most famous lines, and adds, “[W]ho would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”. Her belief that nothing can wash away the blood is, of course, an ironic and painful reversal of her earlier claim to Macbeth that “[a] little water clears us of this deed”. Macbeth, too, is unable to sleep. His and Lady Macbeth’s sleeplessness was foreshadowed by Macbeth’s hallucination at the moment of the murder, when he believed that a voice cried out “Macbeth does murder sleep”. Like Duncan’s death and Macbeth’s ascension to the kingship, Lady Macbeth’s suicide does not take place onstage; it is merely reported. Macbeth seems numb in response to the news of his wife’s death, which seems surprising, especially given the great love he appears to have borne for his wife. Yet, his indifferent response reflects the despair that has seized him as he realizes that what has come to seem the game of life is almost up. Indeed, Macbeth’s speech following his wife’s death is one of the most famous expressions of despair in all of literature.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

An engineer thinks that his equations are an approximation to reality. A physicist thinks reality is an approximation to his equations. A mathematician doesn't care.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Macbeth Act 3 Notes

After his first confrontation with the witches, Macbeth worried that he would have to commit a murder to gain the Scottish crown. He seems to have gotten used to the idea, as by this point the body count has risen to alarming levels. Now that the first part of the witches’ prophecy has come true, Macbeth feels that he must kill his friend Banquo and the young Fleance in order to prevent the second part from becoming realized. But, as Fleance’s survival suggests, there can be no escape from the witches’ prophecies. Macbeth and his wife seem to have traded roles. As he talks to the murderers, Macbeth adopts the same rhetoric that Lady Macbeth used to convince him to murder in Act 1, scene 7. He questions their manhood in order to make them angry, and their desire to murder Banquo and Fleance grows out of their desire to prove themselves to be men. In the scene with Lady Macbeth that follows, Macbeth again echoes her previous comments. She told him earlier that he must “look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t” . Now he is the one reminding her to mask her unease, as he says that they must “make [their] faces visors to [their] hearts, / Disguising what they are” . Yet, despite his displays of fearlessness, Macbeth is undeniably beset with guilt and doubt, which he expresses in his reference to the “scorpions” in his mind and in his declaration that in killing Banquo they “have scorched the snake, not killed it” . Throughout Macbeth, as in many of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the supernatural and the unnatural appear in grotesque form as harbingers of wickedness, moral corruption, and downfall. Here, the appearance of Banquo’s silent ghost, the reappearance of the witches, and the introduction of the goddess Hecate all symbolize the corruption of Scotland’s political and moral health. In place of the dramatization of Macbeth’s acts of despotism, Shakespeare uses the scenes involving supernatural elements to increase the audience’s sense of foreboding and ill omen. When Macbeth’s political transgressions are revealed, Scotland’s dire situation immediately registers, because the transgressions of state have been predicted by the disturbances in nature. In Macbeth’s moral landscape, loyalty, honor, and virtue serve either as weak or nonexistent constraints against ambition and the lust for power. In the physical landscape that surrounds him, the normal rules of nature serve as weak constraints against the grotesqueries of the witches and the horrific ghost of Banquo. The banquet is simultaneously the high point of Macbeth’s reign and the beginning of his downfall. Macbeth’s bizarre behavior puzzles and disturbs his subjects, confirming their impression that he is mentally troubled. Despite the tentativeness and guilt she displayed in the previous scene, Lady Macbeth here appears surefooted and stronger than her husband, but even her attempts to explain away her husband’s “hallucination” are ineffective when paired with the evidence of his behavior. The contrast between this scene and the one in which Duncan’s body was discovered is striking—whereas Macbeth was once cold-blooded and surefooted, he now allows his anxieties and visions to get the best of him.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Macbeth Act 2 Notes

Banquo’s knowledge of the witches’ prophecy makes him both a potential ally and a potential threat to Macbeth’s plotting. For now, Macbeth seems distrustful of Banquo and pretends to have hardly thought of the witches, but Macbeth’s desire to discuss the prophecies at some future time suggests that he may have some sort of conspiratorial plans in mind. The appearance of Fleance, Banquo’s son, serves as a reminder of the witches’ prediction that Banquo’s children will sit on the throne of Scotland. We realize that if Macbeth succeeds in the murder of Duncan, he will be driven to still more violence before his crown is secure, and Fleance will be in immediate and mortal danger. Act 2 is singularly concerned with the murder of Duncan. But Shakespeare here relies on a technique that he uses throughout Macbeth to help sustain the play’s incredibly rapid tempo of development: elision. We see the scenes leading up to the murder and the scenes immediately following it, but the deed itself does not appear onstage. Duncan’s bedchamber becomes a sort of hidden sanctum into which the characters disappear and from which they emerge powerfully changed. This technique of not allowing us to see the actual murder, which persists throughout Macbeth, may have been borrowed from the classical Greek tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles. In these plays, violent acts abound but are kept offstage, made to seem more terrible by the power of suggestion. The effect on Lady Macbeth of her trip into Duncan’s bedroom is particularly striking. She claims that she would have killed Duncan herself except that he resembled her father sleeping. This is the first time Lady Macbeth shows herself to be at all vulnerable. Her comparison of Duncan to her father suggests that despite her desire for power and her harsh chastisement of Macbeth, she sees her king as an authority figure to whom she must be loyal. After the bloody imagery and dark tone of the previous two scenes, the porter’s comedy comes as a jarring change of tone. His good-natured joking with Macduff breaks up the mounting tension of the play and also comments obliquely on its themes. Unlike all the characters of noble birth, who speak in iambic verse, the porter speaks in prose. His relaxed language seems to signal that his words and his role are less important than those of the other characters, but in his merry banter the porter hits on many truths. His description of the confusion and lust provoked by alcohol caricatures Macbeth’s moral confusion and lust for power. Moreover, his remarks about the ineffective lechery inspired by drink eerily echo Lady Macbeth’s sexual taunting of Macbeth about his ability to carry out his resolutions. The porter’s joke that the door of Inverness is like hell’s gate is ironic, given the cruel and bloody events that are taking place within the castle. When he cries, “Who’s there, i’ th’ name of Beelzebub [the devil]?” the analogy between hell and Inverness becomes even stronger (2.3.3). Instead of receiving a welcome and a blessing when they step into Macbeth’s castle, guests are warned that they are putting themselves in the hands of the devil. Now that Lady Macbeth’s machinations have wrought their result, Lady Macbeth begins to recede from center stage and Macbeth takes her place as the most compelling character in the play. The clipped, halting sentences with which Macbeth speaks to Macduff and Lennox indicate his troubled mind and trepidation about the impending discovery of Duncan’s body. For example, while Lennox offers a lengthy speech about the wild weather of the previous night, Macbeth’s only response is a terse “ ’Twas a rough night”. And when Lennox asks Macbeth, “Goes the King hence today?” Macbeth almost gives away his knowledge that Duncan is dead. “He does,” answers Macbeth, before he realizes that his answer is incriminating and changes it to: “[H]e did appoint so”.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Macbeth Act 1

These scenes establish the play’s dramatic premise—the witches’ awakening of Macbeth’s ambition—and present the main characters and their relationships. At the same time, the first three scenes establish a dark mood that permeates the entire play. The stage directions indicate that the play begins with a storm, and malignant supernatural forces immediately appear in the form of the three witches. From there, the action quickly shifts to a battlefield that is dominated by a sense of the grisliness and cruelty of war. In his description of Macbeth and Banquo’s heroics, the captain dwells specifically on images of carnage: “he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops,” he says, describing Macbeth’s slaying of Macdonwald. The bloody murders that fill the play are foreshadowed by the bloody victory that the Scots win over their enemies. Our initial impression of Macbeth, based on the captain’s report of his valor and prowess in battle, is immediately complicated by Macbeth’s obvious fixation upon the witches’ prophecy. Macbeth is a noble and courageous warrior but his reaction to the witches’ pronouncements emphasizes his great desire for power and prestige. Macbeth immediately realizes that the fulfillment of the prophecy may require conspiracy and murder on his part. He clearly allows himself to consider taking such actions, although he is by no means resolved to do so. His reaction to the prophecy displays a fundamental confusion and inactivity: instead of resolving to act on the witches’ claims, or simply dismissing them, Macbeth talks himself into a kind of thoughtful stupor as he tries to work out the situation for himself. In the following scene, Lady Macbeth will emerge and drive the hesitant Macbeth to act; she is the will propelling his achievements. Once Lady Macbeth hears of the witches’ prophecy, Duncan’s life is doomed. These scenes are dominated by Lady Macbeth, who is probably the most memorable character in the play. Her violent, blistering soliloquies in Act 1, scenes 5 and 7, testify to her strength of will, which completely eclipses that of her husband. She is well aware of the discrepancy between their respective resolves and understands that she will have to manipulate her husband into acting on the witches’ prophecy. Her soliloquy in Act 1, scene 5, begins the play’s exploration of gender roles, particularly of the value and nature of masculinity. In the soliloquy, she spurns her feminine characteristics, crying out “unsex me here” and wishing that the milk in her breasts would be exchanged for “gall” so that she could murder Duncan herself. These remarks manifest Lady Macbeth’s belief that manhood is defined by murder. When, in Act 1, scene 7, her husband is hesitant to murder Duncan, she goads him by questioning his manhood and by implicitly comparing his willingness to carry through on his intention of killing Duncan with his ability to carry out a sexual act. Throughout the play, whenever Macbeth shows signs of faltering, Lady Macbeth implies that he is less than a man. Macbeth exclaims that Lady Macbeth should “[b]ring forth men-children only” because she is so bold and courageous. Since Macbeth succumbs to Lady Macbeth’s wishes immediately following this remark, it seems that he is complimenting her and affirming her belief that courage and brilliance are masculine traits. But the comment also suggests that Macbeth is thinking about his legacy. He sees Lady Macbeth’s boldness and masculinity as heroic and warriorlike, while Lady Macbeth invokes her supposed masculine “virtues” for dark, cruel purposes. Unlike Macbeth, she seems solely concerned with immediate power.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

Question: What do you call rude pictures that a mechanical engineer draws and then gives away without charge? Answer: Free bawdy diagrams

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

An engineering student was walking across campus when another engineer rides up on a shiny new motorcycle. "Where did you get such a rockin' bike?" asked the first. The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said "Take what you want." The second engineer nodded approvingly "Good choice, the clothes probably wouldn't have fit."

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Lit Analysis #8

The Loved One General 1. The plot of the novel is that a woman, Aimee, is stuck in love between two men, Dennis and Mr. Joyboy. Dennis Barlow is an English poet who works at a pets cemetery. He falls in love with Aimee, but has a poor way of showing affection. Mr. Joyboy works at a human cemetery, and he works with Aimee. He also falls in love with her, but he shows his love to her. Aimee becomes conflicted about who to choose as her husband because she loved both men, but in different ways. In the end she commits suicide as her final decision. 2. The theme of the novel to me to point out imperfection. Aimee realized the imperfections in both men which made who decision to choose even harder. She found out that Dennis worked at a pet cemetery and that he copied other poets. Mr. Joyboy's flaw was that he was in a way a momma's boy. 3. The tone I took away from the story was confusion. Everything seemed so complicated for all the characters. Neither men knew who would get to keep Aimee for themselves, and Aimee was confused about who to pick. 4. One literary element is style. The story is told in third person with a very dramatic point of view. Syntax was also included by the way the author added excerpts from poems into the story. Also the diction because sometimes it was written in old time English when reading the poems. The dialogue would change too from Aimee talking to Dennis in a casual form and to Mr. Joyboy in a more proper way. Finally the point of view being dramatic from Aimee's side. Characterization 1. The author uses direct characterization in expressing Dennis' love for Aimee. He's very straight forward about it and tells her that he wants to get married. Direct characterization is also used in describing the Hollywood life. People talk of how it's a disgrace for a man like Dennis to work at a pet cemetery. Indirect characterization is used in reading into who Aimee wants to marry. She seemed very indecisive to me. It's also used in revealing that Mr. Joyboy lives with his mom because he seemed like the type of man who would live on his own in a nice house. 2. There was a small change in diction because Aimee spoke to Dennis very casually and then would talk to Mr. Joyboy more properly. 3. The protagonist, Dennis, was dynamic because he went from lying about his work to loving Aimee and admitting his faults. In the end he writes a poem for her like she'd always wanted because he truly loved her. 4. I definitely came away feeling like I'd met the characters. I felt most connected to Aimee because I felt so bad for her in having to make the decisions that she was forced to make.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

Normal people believe that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it isn’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

How many electrical engineers does it take to change a light bulb? None. They simply redefine darkness as the industry standard.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

A graduate with a Science degree asks, "Why does it work?" A graduate with an Engineering degree asks, "How does it work?" A graduate with an Accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?" A graduate with a Liberal Arts degree asks, "Would you like an apple pie with that?" —Guest Engineer

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

An engineering major sees classmate riding up on a new bike and asks when he got it. "I was walking back from the computer lab when the most beautiful woman I had ever seen rode up on this bike, stopped, took all her clothes off and said to me 'Take what you want!'" "Good choice," the friend replies. "The clothes probably wouldn't have fit you." —Guest Matt

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

Engineer and Mathematician (males) were given the opportunity to compete for a very attractive woman. But there was one condition: "You can only run half the remaining distance between you and the lady". Eng. sprinted forward while Math. didn't. Why aren't you running? Asked members of the Committee. Because, by definition, I will never be allowed to reach my target. And you Eng. why are you running? Don't you know the same? Yes, said Eng. my learned friend is correct. But I will get close enough for all practical purposes. —Guest Mr. Murphy

Engineering Joke Of The Day

What is the definition of an engineer? Answer: Someone who solves a problem you didn't know you had, in a way you don't understand. —gemdragon

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Lit Terms 81-end

1. Rhetorical Question: question suggesting its own answer ot not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion. Example: "Yes. Why not?" "Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?"--From Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. "Are you serious?" 2. Rising Action: plot build up, caused by conflict and complications, advancement toward climax. 3. Romanticism: movement in western culture begining in the eighteenth and pearking in the nineteenth century as a revolt against Classicism; imagination was valued over reason and fact. Example: Jane Austen's Persuasion; Mansfield Park Emily Bronte's Wuthering Height 4. Satire: ridicules or condemns the weakness and wrong doings of indivduals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general. Example: "The city stopped washing its buses because they kept getting dirty again." "We should hire illegal immigrants as teachers because that way we can pay them less." 5. Scansion: the analysis of verse in terms of meter. 6. Setting: the time and place in whcih events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur. Example: A Tale Of Two Cities-London and Paris 1775-1790 background French Revolution 7. Simile: a figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of a specific word of comparison. Example: "My stomach is growling like a bear." "You are as sweet as chocolate." 8. Soliloquy: an extended speech, usually in a drama, delivered by a character alone on stage. Example: "To be or not to be"--Hamlet; Shakespeare "O conspiracy, Sham' st thou to show thy dan'rous brow by night, When evils are most free? O, then by day Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy; Hide it in smiles and affability: For if thou path, thy native semblance on, Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention." --Brutus 9. Spiritual: a folk song, usually on a religious theme. 10. Speaker: a narrator, the one speaking. Example: narrator 11. Stereotype: cliché; a simplified, standardized conception with a special meaning and appeal for members of a group; a formula story. Example: "All teenagers are rebels." "All children don't enjoy healthy food." " Women take forever to do anything." 12. Stream of Consciousness: the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character's thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images, as the character experiences them. Example: "Such fools we all are, she thought, crossing Victoria Street. For Heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so, making it up, building it round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment afresh; but the veriest frumps, the most dejected of miseries sitting on doorsteps (drink their downfall) do the same; can't be dealt with, she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they love life. In people's eyes, in the swing, tramp, trudge; in the bellow and the uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June." -Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway 13. Structure: the planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization. 14. Style: the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking. Example: Jane Austen--romantic; gothic; heroic F.Scott Fitzgerald--imaginary sentences; american dream 15. Subordination: the couching of less important ideas in less important structures of language. Example: "Even though the broccoli was covered in cheddar cheese, Emily refused to eat it." (subordinate clause+main clause) "Unless Kate finished her calculus hw, she will have to suffer during class tomorrow." 16. Surrealism: a style in literature and painting that stresses the subconscious or the nonrational aspects of man's existence characterized by the juxtaposition of the bizarre and the banal. Example: Salvador Dali--The Persistence of Memory 17. Suspension of Disbelief: suspend not believing in order to enjoy it. Example: Spider Man; Super Man 18. Symbol: something which stands for something else; yet has a meaning of its own. Example: Flag is the symbol of the country. Red-bloody; The Red Badge Of Courage-the tranformation(fail to success) of Henry Fleming and honor. 19. Synesthesia: the use of one sense to convey the experience of another sense. Example: "I see the sound of the car." "I catch the sound of rain." 20. Synecdoche: another form of name changing, in which a part stands for the whole. Example: Wheels-Car Thread-Clothes Hand-Worker 21. Syntax: the arrangement and grammatical relations of words in a sentence. 22. Theme: main idea of the story; its message(s). 23. Thesis: a proposition for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or disaproved: the main idea. 24. Tone: the devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work; the author's perceived point of view. Example: "Goddamn money. It always ends up making you blue as hell." "Caltholics are always trying to find out if you're Catholic."--Catcher in the Rye:Bitter; Sacrastic; Tough 25. Tongue in Cheek: a type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness; a.k.a. "dry" or "dead pan". 26. Tradegy: in literature: any composition with a somber theme carried to a disastrous conclusions; a fatal event; protagonist usually is heroic but tragically(fatally) flawed. 27. Understatement: opposite of hyperbole; saying less than you mean for emphasis. 28. Vernacular: everyday speech 29. Voice: the textual features, such as diction and sentence structures, that convey a writer's or speaker's persona. 30. Zeitgeist: the feeling of a particular era in history.

Engineer Joke Of The Week

Chemical Engineer vs Chemist What's the difference between a chemical engineer and a chemist? Answer: about $50k a year

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

BOB 1

I'm not in the position to judge anyone on their blogs when mine hasn't been good. I can recognize the people that have remarkable blogs! I think some of us are doing amazing including.... Feli,Conor,Sam,Travis,Dulce,Ming,Isaih,Josh, Alex,Erika,Abby,Megan and Sebastian. :) Keep up the good work guys!

Monday, February 18, 2013

I Am Here

Well to tell this truth this grading period was an eye opener for me. I've realized that with a teacher acting as flexible as you I have no motivation to do what you want me to do. I have started to step up finally and hope to finish my senior year strong!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Lit Terms 83-108

Omniscient Point of View: knowing all things, usually the third person. Onomatopoeia: use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning. Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradicting words or phrases are combined to produce a rhetorical effect by means of a concise paradox. Pacing: rate of movement; tempo. CLICK FOR EXAMPLE Parable: a story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth. Paradox: a statement apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really containing a possible truth; an opinion contrary to generally accepted ideas. Parallelism: the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form. Parody: an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist. Pathos: the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness. Pedantry: a display of learning for its own sake. Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose. Poignant: eliciting sorrow or sentiment. Point of View: the attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; in description, the physical point from which the observer views what he is describing. Postmodernism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary. Prose: the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern. Protagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist. Pun: play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications. Purpose: the intended result wished by an author. Realism: writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightfoward manner to reflect life as it actually is. Refrain: a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus. Requiem: any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead. Resolution: point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement. Restatement: idea repeated for emphasis. Rhetoric: use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade. Rhetorical Question: question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Engineering Joke Of The Week

Advances and details A young damsel was asked why she would not marry either of her engineer or lawyer boyfriends. She replied' the engineers make advances and add no detail , the lawyers argue details and make no advance'. —Guest Adesanya adebolu

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Engineer Joke Of The Week

An Engineer And A Lawyer An engineer and a lawyer attended an interview separately. The Engineer was asked: If ten men cleared one hecter of land in ten hours how many hours would five men require to clear the same piece of land? The engineer answered: If ten men cleared one hecter for ten hours ,then one man would re quire 10 X 10 hours. Therefore five men would require 10x10 divided by 5 i.e 20hours. The lawyer was asked the same question and he answered: If ten men cleared one hecter of land for ten hours , then there would be no piece of land for any man to clear. Therefore five men would require zero hour. —Guest Adesanya adebolu

Monday, February 4, 2013

Lit Analysis #7

Great Expectations General 1. The novel is about a boy named Pip who lost his parents and lives with his sister and her husband. Later he meets a man at the churchyard who threatens him and makes him do as he says. Out of fear Pip starts stealing for the man. Then he meets another character, Estella, who he falls madly in love with. Estella is taught to hurt boys because that's how her mother was taught. Pip still tries to win her over, but has to move to London for schooling. He received a large fortune and blew most of it while living with a friend in London. While away his sister, Mrs. Joe, passes away and he returns home for the funeral service. When he was in town he discovered that the fortune he had received came from the man in the churchyard. After all that he had gone through he still managed to unite with his love Estella in the end. 2. The theme in this novel is ambition. This is because Pip had the ambition that led him back to Estella and not giving up on trying for her. He went through a long journey with having to move and dealing with loss, but didn't lose hope. 3. The tone I felt from reading was a sense of loss and determination. Obviously if I was in his shoes I'd feel a little more sorrow due to having no family, but for him it just brings about determination. Even through his hard times he had determination to go back to Estella. 4. Allusions were used in the novel in the fact that Dicken's based the story off of his own life. Also the diction because it was written in an older era. Along with diction is the syntax for the way Dicken's categorized the journey of Pip's life. The tone was also important because it really made me in a way feel bad for Pip. Characterization 1. Dickens used direct characterization in describing Pip by expressing everyone of his actions. He also used direct characterization when telling of how Estella is taught to deal with guys. Indirect characterization is used on Miss Havisham because she's indirectly the problem. She seems like she's helping Pip, but she's really doing things for her own benefit. 2. I didn't notice a change in diction or syntax when focusing on different characters. 3. The protagonist, Pip, definitely is dynamic. Throughout the novel he goes from fairly immature to realizing importance and becoming a man. 4. After reading the novel I came away feeling like I'd met Pip and experienced the journey with him. The author really did a good job at allowing the reader to connect to the character.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Lit Analysis #6

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn General: 1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is not only considered its own text, but also the sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom being one of Huckleberry's dear friends. Huckleberry Finn continues where he and his friend Tom left off in St. Petersburg, Missouri, where they found a fortune of gold. Huck knew that due to his unstable lifestyle, he couldn't carry his fortune with him, so he placed it in a bank. This novel takes place before the civil war, around the years 1835-1834. "Huck" is a young boy from the lower castes of society. His background has proven to be unfortunate as his biological father is a drunk who didn't develop a healthy relationship with his son. Not only that, he left Huck for long periods at a time, often times homeless. By the beginning of this novel, Huck had been adopted by Widow Douglas, a nice woman who attempted to fix Huck. Widow Douglas tried to give Huck the stability that he never knew. She enrolled him in school, and took him to church. He wasn't willful, however. Unfortunately, the stability was short-lived, as Huck waskidnapped by his natural father, Pap. Pap was in search of the fortune that Huck had found, and went to greats lengths to try to get it. Pap locked his son in a cabin and beat him often throughout his drunken tangents. Not after too long, Huck escaped by faking his own death. He ended up on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River, where he met Jim, a runaway slave whose award is out for his capture. Jim and Huck became allies, helping each other escape from their terrible pasts. They soon meet two con artists, men who claimed to be a duke and a dauphin. Together, they made scams down the Mississippi River, some successful, and others that threatened their lives. The worst crime they committed, however, was selling Jim. These two con-artists, however, sold Jim to Tom Sawyer's aunt and uncle. Huck pretended to be Tom, and Tom pretended to be his own brother Sid, and the two derived a plan to free Jim. After a plan that nearly got everyone killed, the author revealed that since Miss Watson had passed away, Jim was a free man. Also, Huck realized that his father was dead, and was last seen floating in the Mississippi River. The novel ends with Tom and Huck being revealed for who they were and continuing their lives as Huck set out West. 2. Based on my interpretation of the novel, I feel that the theme is that friendship has no boundaries. In the era of this novel, race was at the center of social standing and societal perceptions. It was frowned upon for white society to make friendships with the African American society, especially if they were slaves. Huck and Jim forgot what society expected of them, and built a friendship. They didn't see one another as white, black, inferior, or superior. They saw one another as Jim and Huck, two runaways that found each other on their journey away from their ugly pasts. 3. On many occasions in this novel, I would describe the tone as depressing, and saddening. The following quotes demonstrate my point: •"Alright then, I'll go to hell." •"Human beings can be awful cruel to one another." •"Well, if I ever struck anything like it, I'm a nigger. It was enough to make my body ashamed of the human race." 4. •Diction: "Whatsoever ye ask for, that shall ye get." (14.39) This quote, as well as others, showed me the style of conversation during this era of history. This showed me the way the spoke, and thought, which allowed me to understand the characters and history better. •Stereotype: "-do you reckon a nigger can run across money and not borrow some of it?" (26.97) This quote proves the racism that took place and ignorance that occupied peoples' minds. The characters assumed that if one was black, they must have been a thief, and that skin color effects one's actions. •Simile: "He ain't no slave; he's as free as any cretur that walks this earth!" (42.45) In this quote, the characters were defending Jim as he was a free man, since the woman that owned him had died. They compared him to every creature on Earth to prove that he was as free as someone who had never been a slave. •Indirect Characterization: "Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlmen dat ever kep' his promise to ole Jim". (16.16) Indirectly, Jim is stating that Huck is a good person for treating Jim better than any other "white folk" would. Huck kept his promises to Jim, and didn't let his skin color effect anything. •Syntax: "I hain't got no money." (5.19) This grammatical arrangement of words shows the lack of education that existed during this time. Knowing this, I was able to understand the characters better when it came to their thoughts and actions. •Direct characterization: "It's a dead man. Yes indeedy; naked, too. He's been shot in de back. I reck'n he's ben dead two er three days. Come in, Huck, but doan' look at his face- it's too gashly." (9.18) The character directly stated how the body looked, which showed his honesty and concern for Huck. He wanted to warn Huck of the brutal sight, so that Huck could mentally prepare himself. This showed how much people cared about Huck, as they would look out for him and have his best interests at heart. •Pathos: Yes, he's got a father, but you can't never find him these days. He used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tenyard, nut he hain't seen in these parts for a year or more." (2.13) Reading this made me feel terrible for Huck. I couldn't imagine such a person as my parent, and it allowed me to understand Huck as a person better, since I now knew where he came from. •Metaphor: "I don't want no beter book than what your face is." (29.16) In this quote, Jim was referring to the fact that Hucks face tells a story. Huck's tears, scars, and wounds tell his life story. Jim didn't need a book to tell him where Huck came from, because his appearance said it all, at times. •Aphorism: "You can't pray a lie." (13.13) This quote tells an ugly truth that people in this novel didn't want to believe. One could pray all that they wanted to, with all of their might. However, if their prayers were lies, or were coming form an ugly place, they were useless. •Mood: "It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our back and look up at them.." (23.17) Through all of the unfortunate events that had happened to Huck, this quote made me feel better. It made me feel better that Huck finally found some sort of peace, which totally changed the mood around for this novel. 1. Direct Characterization: •"You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." •That book was made by Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stressed, but mainly told the truth." Directly, Huck is stating that if we want to get to know him, we must read, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." If we hadn’t then we wouldn't be able to understand him. Also, Huck articulated clearly that he felt Twain exaggerated the truth when it came to writing these novels. Indirect Characterization: •"I got out my old rags and my sugar hogshed again, and was free and satisfied." •"I don't take no stock in dead people." Indirectly, Huck was stating that he would run away, and enjoy life as it used to be. When he was on the run, he used to sugar hogshed to make his bed. Also, Huck wants to articulate that he doesn't care much for dead people, as they are now no use to him. I feel that Twain uses both approaches to give a variety of descriptions to his audience. Being so creative keeps the reader engaged and entertained, and allows them to see each character through a different light. As a result, I understood the characters better and got to read their thoughts and feelings through different literary elements. 2. Mark Twain's diction/syntax didn't change as he focused on character as he had Huck as the narrator. Everything was in Huck's words through his point of view. For example, "Worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up. I couldn't stood it much longer. Then for an hour it was deadly dull, an I was fidgety. Miss Watson would say, "Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;", and, "Don' scrunch up like that Huckleberry--set up straight." 3. I would describe Huck as a dynamic and round character. Throughout the novel, he grew to make decisions for himself, and to not let the thoughts of others effect him. He had grown to distinguish right from wrong and good from bad. Whether it was running away, or making decisions concerning the con artists, Huck learned how to make the right decisions for himself. Lastly, Huck grew to rebel against society in a way that would improve the quality of lives. He admitted that he would rather go to hell than see Jim become a slaved man. This alone shows how Huck grew emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. 4. After reading this novel, I felt that I had met a person. Eventually, Huck allowed his vulnerability to show, and showed his true colors to the audience and characters. For example, Huck said he would rather, "Go to hell", than see Jim become a slave again. This showed that Huck loved Jim, even though it was socially unacceptable. He didn't care about that portion of society's expectations, and continued his friendship with Jim. This made me feel like I met a strong-willed and tough person.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Lit Terms 31-60

Dialect: the language of a particular district, class, or group of persons; the sounds , grammar, and diction employed by people distinguished from others. Dialectics: formal debates usually over the nature of truth. Dichotomy: split or break between two opposing things. Diction: the style of speaking or writing as reflected in the choice and use of words. Didactic: having to do with the transmission of information; education. Dogmatic: rigid beliefs and principles. Elegy: a mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead, sometimes contains general reflections on death, often with a rural or pastoral setting. Epic: a long narrative poem unified be a hero who reflects the customs, morals, and aspirations of his nation of race as he makes his way through legendary and historic exploits, usually over a long period of time (definition bordering on circumlocution). Epigram: witty aphorism. Epitaph: any brief inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone; a short formal poem of commemoration often a credo written by the person who wishes it to be on his tombstone. Epithet: a short, descriptive name or phrase that may insult someone's character, characteristics. Euphemism: the use of indirect, mild or vague word or expression for one though to be coarse, offensive, or blunt. Evocative (evocation): a calling forth of memories and sensation; the suggestion or production through artistry and imagination of a sense of reality. Exposition: the beginning of a story that sets forth facts, ideas and/or characters, in a detailed explanation. Expressionism: movement in art, literature, and music consisting of unrealistic representation of an inner idea or feeling. Fable: a short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth. Fallacy: a false or misleading notion, belief, or argument; any kind of erroneous reasoning that makes arguments unsound. Falling Action: part of the narrative or drama after the climax. Farce: a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue. Figurative Language: apt and imaginative language characterized by figures of speech. Flashback: a narrative device that flashes back to prior events. Foil: a person that, by contrast, makes another seem better or more prominent. Folk Tale: a story passed on by word of mouth. Foreshadowing: in fiction and drama, a device to prepare the reader for the outcome of the action; "planning" to make the outcome convincing, though not to give it away. Free Verse: verse without conventional metrical pattern, with irregular pattern or no rhyme.

Engineer Joke Of The Week

The Fridge A Engineer gets home from work and sees a note on the fridge from his wife. "This isn't working, I'm at my moms". he opens the fridge and checks the light, then grabs a beer and feels it cold. The engineer thinks to himself. "The fridge works fine" —Guest Guest Engineer

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

What's The Story

I think he wrote the story the way he did (a bildungsroman about a poor boy with "Dickens-style" characters and themes) to portray how life was like in the time. He showed his opinions on social status by showing the wealthy as unhappy and the poor as satisfied, the women as tyrranical and the men as practical, and the analytical as successful. He indirectly characterized his characters through their actions and motives for their actions, for example Joe takes on Mrs Joe and Pip out of pity and love for the young woman and her infant brother, showing his compassion and good nature.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Engineer Joke Of The Week

Engineers are like Slinky's Both aren't good for much but they are sure fun to push down the stairs. —Guest Mark

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Lit Terms 6-20

Analogy: a comparison made between two things to show the similarities. Analysis: a method in which a worker or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts are given rigorous and detailed scrutiny. Anaphora: a device or repetition in which a word or words are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences. Anecdote: a short story used to illustrate a point. Antagonist: a person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative. Antithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness. Aphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life. Apologia: a defense or justification for some doctrine , piece of writing, or action; also apology. Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something inanimate or nonhuman is addressed directly. Argument(ation): the process of convincing a reader by either the truth or falsity of an idea or proposition; also, the thesis or proposition itself. Assumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted a thing one does. Audience: the intended listener or listeners. Characterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character's personality. Chiasmus: a reversal in the order of words so that the second half or the statement balances the first half in reverse order. Circumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have sufficed. Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome; tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance. Cliche: a phrase or situation overused within society. Climax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the point of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved. Colloquialism: folksy speech, slang words, or phrases usually used in informal conversation. Comedy: originally a nondramatic literary piece of work that was marked by a happy ending now a term to describe a ludicrous, farcical, or amusing event designed to provide enjoyment or produce smiles and laughter. Conflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension. Connotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition. Contrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity. Denotation: plain dictionary definition. Denouement (day-new-mahn): loose ends tied up in the story after the climax, closure, conclusion.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Poetry Analysis

1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Paraphrase: This long poem seems to be someone talking of approaching a lover, like a man wanting to approach a woman. Yet this man can't seem to be able to do it. He talks of life, and talks of how others are talking of "Michelangelo." This man seems to think that he is inadequate and not on the level of the woman he loves. Purpose: I believe the purpose is the man trying to air out his thoughts about whether he should approach his love or not. Structure: This poem actually seems more like a monologue, with rhyming here and there. I think that type of poetry is called free verse. Shift: The man seems to start off more hopeful sounding, but towards the end it seems like he has kind of given up. Like he realized that maybe there isn't a point in what he is saying. Speaker: Prufrock is the speaker! Spelling/Grammar/Diction: The style of writing seems to be quite modern. There are a lot of hyphenated words such as "one-night", "window-panes" and "shirt-sleeves" that you don't see used very often nowadays. Tone: Prufrock's tone is very solemn. I picture him standing there, speaking quietly to himself with a look of deep thought on his face. 2. Mending Wall by Robert Frost Paraphrase: The narrator and his neighbor spend some time mending the wall that separates their properties. The narrator questions why there is a wall there at all, while the neighbor just says that "Good fences make good neighbors." Even though the narrator doesn't seem to totally agree with it, the neighbor repeats it once again. Purpose: This seems like the kind of poem that could be interpreted in many different ways and on many different levels. Maybe Frost is using the narrator as his window to his own question of the purpose of building and mending walls between us. I can only hope to touch the surface of the purpose. Structure: A quick search seems to show that this is blank verse. Shift: Towards the beginning, the narrator talks of the process of going with his neighbor to fix the wall. It seems to be a routine thing for them. Then he goes on to talk of their conversation of the significance of the wall. He questions it's presence, while his neighbor just accepts it. Speaker: The speaker is anonymous to the audience. Spelling/Grammar/Diction: There is nothing special or out of the ordinary in the spelling or grammar, except for the strange hyphenated word "frozen-ground-swell." Tone: Frost has a very light, conversational tone. It sounds a little thoughtful, but not in a super serious way. 3. Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes Paraphrase: The speaker seems to yearn for his old America, land of equality, liberty, and dreams. When asked who is speaking, he describes himself as every kind of American that had been wronged, and begs for America to be America again. Purpose: This poem seems to be rallying for America to change, to be the America that every purpose dreams it to be. Structure: The poem has no particular structure with a few rhyming parts here and there, so I would categorize it as free verse. Shift: The speaker starts the poem by saying how America isn't what it's supposed to be. He then goes on to describe himself as the wronged Americans, then back to begging for America to change. Speaker: I would say Hughes is the speaker in this poem. Spelling/Grammar/Diction: The spelling and grammar are simple and modern. Tone: Hughes' tone is motivational, and powerful. He sounds as if he was speaking to a crowd of people who are upset with the way America has treated them. 4. The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats Paraphrase: The narrator describes a terrible scene, where anarchy is set loose and innocence is lost. It seems as if the Second Coming has arrived, and there is a terrible beast coming towards Bethlehem with a lion body and a head of a man. Sounds nightmarish. Purpose: This seems to be the painting of what Yeats might imagine the second coming of Christ is to be like. Structure: There seems to be no rhyming or structure, so it is probably free verse. Although, after a quick search, it might be very loosely considered iambic pentameter. But only barely. Shift: In the beginning, the narrator seems to be afraid of the monstrosities happening. But when he realizes that this is the second coming, he seems to be accepting of the new age that is coming, no matter how terrifying. Speaker: Anonymous. Spelling/Grammar/Diction: Modern style of writing. Tone: The tone seems to be quite calm for such a horrible description. It's as if a preacher is talking of the coming of the end of the world, passionate yet not panicky. 5. Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold Paraphrase: Arnold describes the sea, and the many things you hear and see when near it. He talks of a philosopher playwright who compared the tide's ebb and flow to human misery. He than calls for love instead of the war that goes on in the world. Purpose: I'm unclear as to what this poem's purpose truly is. After a quick search it is shown to be a poem that he wrote for his wife after they visited Dover. Structure: Free verse! :) I'm gettin' good at this. Shift: The poem starts with a simple yet beautiful description of the sea itself. Then it changes to how it's related to humans and the world itself. Speaker: Matthew Arnold himself. Spelling/Grammar/Diction: Not too difficult, modern style of writing and speech. Tone: The tone seems to be very dramatic, like a story teller spinning and weaving a tale of the ocean. The poem itself is very pretty sounding. A perfect thing to write for your significant other. Purpose: I'm unclear as to what this poem's purpose truly is. After a quick search it is shown to be a poem that he wrote for his wife after they visited Dover. Structure: Free verse! :) I'm gettin' good at this. Shift: The poem starts with a simple yet beautiful description of the sea itself. Then it changes to how it's related to humans and the world itself. Speaker: Matthew Arnold himself. Spelling/Grammar/Diction: Not too difficult, modern style of writing and speech. Tone: The tone seems to be very dramatic, like a story teller spinning and weaving a tale of the ocean. The poem itself is very pretty sounding. A perfect thing to write for your significant other.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Engineer Joke Of The Week

An optimist sees the glass half full. A pessimist sees the glass half empty. An engineer sees a glass twice as big as it needs to be. —Guest Brooks P.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

AP Lit Terms 1

Allegory: A tale in prose or verse in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities; a story that uses symbols to make a point. Allusion: A reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects a reader to recognize. Alliteration: A repetition of similar initial sounds, usually consonants, in a group of words. Ambiguity: Something uncertain as to interpretation. Anachronism: Something that shows up in the wrong place or wrong time.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Fall Semester Reflection

Do you read your colleagues’ work online? How often? What is it like to read their work? How does being able to see everyone’s work online at any given time change the way you do your work? How has the publicly and always visible course blog made this course different from one without a blog? How would the course change if the course blog disappeared tomorrow? Has publishing your work for the public to see changed your approach to completing an assignment? How so? How would your feelings about the course change if you couldn’t publish your work that way? Has your experience of the physical classroom changed because of the open & online aspects? Where does your learning actually happen? You were described in the Macarthur Foundation/DML interview as “a pioneer”-- how do you describe the experience on the edge to people who haven’t been there (friends and family)? How do they respond when you describe the brave new world in which you’re working? What do their responses mean to you? What effect(s) (if any) do they have on you?

AP Prep Test 1: Siddartha

Siddhartha Study Questions: 1. How can we know who is the right teacher for us? 2. Can wisdom be taught? 3. What is the relation of words to wisdom? Do words tend to enhance or limit wisdom? 4. In Chapter 8, Siddhartha thinks of his former life as “that soft, well-upholstered hell.” What does this description reveal about the nature of “hell” for someone seeking spiritual salvation or enlightenment? 5. Why is Siddhartha’s long journey necessary before he can achieve enlightenment, and what things does this suggest about the nature of enlightenment? 6. Describe the ancient Indian society in which Siddhartha lives as it is portrayed in the book. In what ways is it different from modern American society, and in what ways is it similar? 7. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the novel’s plot is its use of coincidence. Why do you think Hesse chose to structure the story in this way, and what theme(s) does it suggest?