Vocab list #2

intercede- intervene on behalf of another
The mom interceded in the argument her children were having.
hackneyed-a phrase that is overused or is a stereotype
Now a days the word "literally" has become hackneyed. 
approbation-approval or praise
 I can go to the concert with my parents' approbation.
innuendo- An allusive remark or hint that gives off the wrong idea
Everything Tom says is innuendos and some people find that funny while others don't.
coalition-a group formed to gain an advantage 
Sometimes buisnesses form a coalition to get more customers. 
elicit-to draw out or bring forth
The stage actor hoped his performance would elicit a grand aplause from the audience.
hiatus-a period of the time something is stopped
After finals week, a well derved hiatus is awaited from the students. 
assuage-to provide relief 
To assauge Alexa's headace, she took a pill.
decadence-state of moral or artistic decline
The blue quilt are cloth decadence.
expostulate-to express strong disagreement 
My sister would expostulate her opinion if I made any suggestions on what to watch on tv.
simulate-to replicate an image or behavior
Some people use apps that simulates sounds which helps them fall asleep at night.
jaded-depleted with excitement or enthusiasm 
After the delayed and long flight, Sam was feeling a bit jaded and did not want to fly again.
umbrage-to take/find something offensive
prerogative-a special right or privlage 
Since Sally was manager at Taco Bell, she had the prerogative to discounts whenever she wanted free food.
lurid-full of unpleasent details ment to shock or interest people.
transcend-to exceed the limits of something
provincial-concerning a provence of a country
The clothes she used to wear in the small town where provencial to the ones from the big city.
petulant-to describe something irritable 
The petulant little boy was annoyed by evereything.
unctuous-not expressing true feelings
Politicians tend to be unctuous when delivering a speech.
meritorious-deserving of rewards or praise
The gold medal was the olympians' most meritorious reward.

Vocab Fall list #1

Theme-the central idea of a piece of writing

Tone-the author's attitude toward the characters, the subject, and/or the audience

mood-the emotional state of the reader

dictation: The action of saying words allowed to be recorded 

syntax-the sequence in which words are formed into sentences

adumbrate-represent in outline

apotheosis-the climax

ascetic-someone who abstains from all forms of indulgence 

bauble-An inexpensive piece of decoration

burgeon-something growing rapidly

Complement-something that perfects/completes an item

contumacious-rebellious  

curmudgeon-bad tempered

didactic-lecture others too much

beguile-to trick someone with charm

On Sunday I made a list on Quizlet. Here's the link: 

https://quizlet.com/146696869/vocab-fall-list-1-flash-cards/

I can read!.. well maybe not

https://youtu.be/oqyhTNn_644

After several attempts of humorous and countless tries at this assignment, I finally decided to just record it. I actually recorded this yesterday and it still won't upload. Something about the file being too big, so as my last resort I posted it on YouTube. As you can see I failed at beating Dr.Preston's record. I hope this video where I stuttered and messed up many times is somewhat entertaining. I sure thought it was.

Literature Analysis Questions #!

1.The Maze Runner is about a teenage boy who wakes up one day in a place called the Glade where he finds other teenage boys there as well. The Glade is a place in the middle of the maze or labyrinth that they are in. Thomas, the main character, and his peers do not remember life before they where put in the maze or why they were sent there. He has an urge to be a runner and help find a way out which his peers tell him is impossible.

2.So far, I think the theme of the novel is hope because Thomas has no memory whatsoever of anything before the glade and he gets frustrated how everyone is treating him. He feels as if life isn't worth while and especially when his peers tell him there is no way out. He still feels a bit of hope and an urge to go out into the maze regardless of what kind of creatures and dangers that his peers tell him lies ahead.

3. I think the author's morning routine is he wakes up early. "Common Greenie,"the tall boy whispered as he stood..,"Supposed to show you something before the wake-up." The wake-up is very early because all of them have jobs to do like farming.
The author probably goes for a run or jog. "He wanted to be a runner. He would be a runner. Deep down inside he knew he had to go out there, into the maze." pg. 46
The author eats breakfast. Most of the time is breakfast consists of eggs and bacon. "He pictured them in his mind as he picked at the eggs and bacon." p.40 

4. Literary techniques I've observed so far are as follows: imagery, flashback,
 onomatopoeia- "We live here that is it. Better than living in a pile of klunk... Klunk's another word for poo, Poo makes a clunk sound."
 setting- "They stood in a vast courtyard several times the size of a football field, surrounded by four enormous walls made of grey stone and covered in spots with thick ivy."
and  hyperbole- "Ah, man,"Thomas mumbled through a mouthful."I was starving".

My Response to the "Conscience of A Hacker"

When I read this, I felt sort of a relation to what the author was saying. He kept a pattern of showing us that adults have stereotypical thoughts about us kids and how we're "all the same". I agree. If  the blame is pointed towards us, or even just trying to give your opinion, the majority of adults wouldn't even listen. "They are just kids. They don't know what they're talking about" is a phrase I've heard from many adults. I don't understand how we can't give our opinion or explain ourselves because of our age so we "don't know anything".

My Satire Aug 23

1.) I think a PowerPoint will be the most effective medium for my satire because I can add pictures and be more creative so that the message will be more memorable.

2.) My message will be directed towards a more sophisticated audience. My tone will be serious yet trying to be humorous and saying skeptical things in order to get my point across. 

3.) The topic for my satire is about the environment and how we need to take good care of it.

Response to "A Modest Proposal":what did I just read?!

I want to start of by saying, I thought this article was really disturbing. However as weird and twisted this may sound, I found and liked his way to capture his audience kind of genius! Before you think I'm an insane person, this is why I think so. He grabbed the reader's attention by saying the most unexpected thing.  Yes, the whole article as about how the Irish should eat babies and sell them in markets in order to solve the over population problem. However, do you really think he would actually want to do that? The thing is, no sane person would actually do that. Before you take that into account, and unless you're a cannibal which is rare, you would be in total shock like I was!  It was creepy how he was explaining everything so calmly and stating scandalous things like how much babies people should eat, but that's just it! That's the element of satire he was using that caught the audience's attention and want to continue reading. If he didn't use satire and just talked about Ireland's problems, no one would read it. I mean why would everyone read about politics, which most people consider boring? He used satire as an advantage and caught people's attention to get his message across which was Ireland needs a lot of changes. No one uses satire anymore because now, people don't think critically and get offended.

My Big Question

My initial response to "What's Your Big Question" was agreement because when we were younger, we didn't really care about what others thought about our likes and dislikes so we would ask and answer a lot of questions. I was thinking about this the other day: I  was so confident through my elementary school years and as each year went by, the more I (and other people) lost that confidence and stopped asking questions. If we gather the courage to do so, we feel a sort of embarrassment afterwards because we feel everyone is judging us. My big question is- Why are we so fixated on what other people think about us and let that stop us for asking questions?

EVERYTHING'S AMAZING

I think Louis CK's point was that we take everything for granted and he used a humorous approach, which was satire, to get people's attention. First he calls this generation out by calling us "the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots". I admit, at first I was a little offended but once he started using humor and explained himself, I got his message. I think his message was that we live in an amazing generation with modern technology and other inventions and we take all of that for granted. He mentioned how hard it was to make a simple phone call back then and mocked us on how we get upset if a text doesn't send right away.  He also pointed out that most people who get off of airplanes describe it as a horror story and not paying attention to the fact they were "sitting in a chair in the sky". Also how people get upset if there was a 20 minute delay for a flight but before there was planes, it wold take days or months even to get some where. I thought this video was pretty hilarious and if Louis CK would've talked about all this without humor, a lot of people most likely wouldn't pay attention and get his message. I'd say that he used satire effectively.

"The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski recital

 

Satire in Pop Culture

I think Satire is a use of comedy that exposes someone's foolishness or makes fun of a situation.

https://youtu.be/KKC5jjFkfgo

 A source that I think is satire is a show that my dad and I watch called Seinfeld. The show contains really random things which a group of four friends living in New York do.  I think Seinfeld uses stereotypes as satire. For example, George is the guy who has trouble with women and can't get a job, Kramer is the weird  one in the group who has no job but still manages to make money and borrow stuff without returning it, and Jerry and Elaine are casually unconcerned.

https://youtu.be/YLoV9xS9rxk?t=2m30s

Another show that contains satire is The Simpsons. For example in an episode, Lisa and Homer where having a conversation in which Lisa tells homer that she is going to be a vegetarian. Homer asks Lisa if she was ever going to eat from an animal again and starts listing foods including pork chops and ham. Homer said they are from the same animal, which they art. You would think the father would teach the child but instead the child is teaching the father. 

https://youtu.be/2Lb2BiUC898?t=1m44s

My sister and I love music and a band we like called Fall Out Boy had a music video that caught my eye. I did my research and saw they decided to use spoof  and remake NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me" music video in their music video "Irresistible". Their music video was a satire take on the NSYNC music video where Nsync dolls where being sent to a shop and the FOB ones where tossed as rejects. Somehow they made it to the shop and they broke out of their boxes to form a mini band just as the original video. 

My response to "The Right to Your Opinion" by Jaime Whyte

"The Right to Your Opinion" shows that everyone has the right to have their opinion and believe what they want to. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that their belief is correct. When talking to people about their opinion to something and you may not agree with them they just respond with "I'm entitled to my opinion". That ends the conversation right there. They didn't support their idea with evidence or even let you respond with your opinion. So if everyone has a right to their opinion, then why must people not let the other person express their opinion? They automatically won the argument. A factor to why they just end the conversation could be that maybe you would say a better point then them and they would end up losing the argument. I feel that in a culture where everyone is so caught up in wanting to be right and winning all the time, expressing our opinions and searching for the truth is hard. Everyone does have the right to their own opinion, however they should be open minded and at least hear what the other person has to say because they have a right to their opinion as well.

My response to "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski

The "Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski is like a pep talk to whomever is reading the poem. The poem encourages the reader to still believe in life, even in the darkest of times, because there will always be light after dark. "Your life is your life". That line reminds the reader that their life belongs to them and no one else so they can do whatever they dream of. This poem is encouraging everyone who thinks that they can not do something marvelous with their life, that they can. The more often they learn to not give in to the darkness, the more light they will see at the end of the tunnel. I think Bukowski's message is to show people that they have a purpose in life and they shouldn't give up.

Welcome

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog! Here I will be posting my opinions, responses, and anything that comes to mind. Thanks for reading!