Maya Angelou Response

Just recently have I been enlightened upon an incredible person in our society. Maya Angelou has appeared, now, multiple times in our routine discussions in Humanities. I have discovered a humanitarian that often goes unnamed in common lists. After reading only two pieces of her work, her style is evident to me; philosophical, passionate, and profound. Her writing is done with such eloquence that every single word is imagined to come out of her mouth. Life's Good displays her "voice" as well as any other writing. As she begins to describe her misunderstanding of life, death, and all of humanity; she states, "I find myself surcease from the entanglement of questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything" This summons the most vague question one can ask which is, "what is my purpose?" No, we cannot apprehend everything in this world, we all know that, but what i wonder is, why not? Why is everything not definite. Like numbers and lines. With a beginning, an end, and a middle. I wonder where questions originate from. It seems, to me, that a Utopian society seems like the future or past of our people, where no questions are asked but just merely ignorance. Now, by all means, I do not believe this totalitarian society where all aspects of life are controlled, but I see how some genius would plot to turn this world we know into a Dystopia-like nation. I once read a book titled The Giver that Lois Lowry wrote following a young boy living in an "anti-utopian" society. It is so incredible to think that the way they live is not so distant from our lives.
I apologize for going off on such a tangent. I really needed to stop. Anyway, here goes nothing.

I am barred in iron chains,
upright with disbelief.
I am barred in questions,
What?When?Where?
I am barred in memories,
living life in its wake.
I am barred in expectations,
all energies to liberate myself.
I am barred by love,
strange, impossible, alarming.
I am barred.





Josh

p.s. I am not barred. this is not a disclaimer, just a reminder.

The Name of This Book is... Secret

Secrets, secrets and more secrets. Why do people have secrets? I believe people have their own little corner of confided truths so that they feel they are somewhat important. This is especially true if you were told the secret and are now the one holding it. Every single person in this world keeps something from someone because they plainly do not want them to know. I am not here to say that you should not keep secrets-that would be hypocritical- but rather share your knowledge to the best of your ability and spread what you know.
This whole entire book is a secret. The characters and plot are unknown and this is why I don't like secrets. I like to know EVERYTHING. Therefore this book is so incredibly frustrating although it is quite captivating. So the next time you have a secret remember that I told you, reader, to share it because there are more Josh Botterman's in the world that want to know everything.

A Little Something About Nothing... Is That Possible

What is nothing? Hmmm... No one knows the answer. Plainly, nothing is nothing. Nothing has to be something though, right? I mean we cannot be speaking and pondering nothing. So therefore I value the statement that "nothing is something, it has to be". What is funny about that is the fact that an eight year old could proclaim that. In saying that nothing is something, we can infer that there is no such thing as nothing. Nothing is nothing; if that makes any sense at all. A great parallel to the definition and semi-understanding of the word "nothing" is the universe. In eighth grade at Bonita Vista Middle School, my science teacher proposed a question to us. We were studying astronomy and astrology when he questioned, "If the universe is always expanding, and the universe is everything, with nothing outside of its edge, how is it growing?" he also asked, "what would you see, feel, hear, if u stepped outside of the possible edge of the universe? what is there?" Mr. Dougherty also told us to think of a plausible answer to these ,abnormally large questions for a thirteen year old, before we fell asleep. If anybody besides me abided to what he said, they were very tired the next day. I don really understand this. In fact I don't at all. As soon as I have a lead it gets foiled by "what if's" and "no that can not be true's" As Karina said very opiniated, as usual, after our coffee shop conversation, "nothing is something ithout anything". When I heard this I was amazed. It is incredibly true yet incredibly incorrect. Like I said, nothing is something but the part that she summed it up with was "without anything". This still brings me back to the question of "what does nothing look like?" It cannot be white or black or even blue. It cannot be big, nor small. Not noisy or silent. Not warm or cold. Nothing is a series of "not's".coming away froms Kay's class I was utterly stumped but now I feel that I understand that nothing cannot be correctly translated, which is a step ahead. Whether or not you got anything out of this, or it was a huge compilation of "nothing", thank you for reading my little something about nothing. Is that possible?

Josh

The Name of This Book is... Secret

Well, like the title reads, this book is EXTREMELY secretive. First off, the author of this book will not tell the reader the names of the characters or the setting or basically anything! The story is about a magician(explains the secretive part)that was killed in a kitchen fire. Two young oddballs find themselves on an expedition to try and solve this case.
Although, by any means, I am not an old man, back in my day I'd find myself with my friends taking excursions into the deep dark wilderness in my back yard. I can relate to this girl and boy because i see the fun in trying to solve things. I am sure that all of us once in a lifetime have tried really hard to find something out that matters to them.

Lastly, GO RAYS IN THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!!!

Vocabulary

alacrity- prompt and cheerful response
When the mail man asked with curiosity if she had gone to the concert last night, she responded with alacrity and excitement.

languid- slow, sluggish, listless, weak
With slow, languid movements the sloth climbed from one vine to another high a top the Amazon Rain forest
Muse- to ponder
As a young child he would muse around the park intently recognizing shapes and objects.

Chargers stomp rival Patriots in AFC showdown

Music to my ears, well actually to my eyes. Now I wonder what this article could possibly be about. Hmmm... maybe the Chargers' twenty point victory over the defending super- oh, wait. They lost in the Super Bowl too! Well to tell you the truth, the Patriots are not the same without the robot, Tom Brady but beating them is still as sweet as apple pie on a Sunday night.
Whenever the Chargers play a team like the New England Patriots you know there's going to be lots of talk and hype about the game. The press was all over this one. Although most of this article describes the actual play in the game it does explain about the rivalry between these two teams. The past three years have been filled with games between these two franchises each meaning a lot to the team's record and morale. Another morale booster is having over 68,000 people yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs and supporting you. The environment at Qualcomm Stadium finally matched the one that they have been waiting for... and the score did too.

Financial Crises Spreads in Europe

Although I am pretty sure that James has been all over this topic already, but we can share some knowledge, right? I'm talking about the economic issues of late, if you hadn't guessed yet. I read this article titled Financial Crises Spreads in Europe from the online front page of the New York Times. Authors, Carter Dougherty, Nelson Schwartz, and Floyd Norris, write that the recent stock market crashes along with the housing market continually dropping have traveled across the Atlantic to the European countries. Across the continent governments have bailed out major banks in order to keep their economies alive.
At no time would I say that I have ever been deprived of something that was needed or even wanted, but there has been a large difference due to the weak economy. For the first time in my life I heard things like, "we don't have the extra money right now" when I pleaded for a macbook. In a way I believe this "recession" has been a good experience for me because it shows that you have to work sometimes although who doesn't want a new computer. ;P