Into the Wild

1. So far in Into the Wild, I'm really enjoying reading about how Chris McCandless started his journey with changing his name and getting rid of the majority of his posessions. making his way up to Alaska and meeting cool people along the way. Like Wayne, and how Alex or Chris said how much he respected Wayne and how he didnt know if he would make it.



2. I would say Chris is easy-going. He doesn't know if he's going to make it or not, but he keeps going anyway. He is very influenced by Thoreau and Jack London. Two men that have also given up their lives to live in the wilderness. I think Chris wants to rid himself of the outside.



3. Some themes I see emerging from the book are stuggle, and perserverance. Chris McCandless isn't very well off in the Alaskan wilderness, with little food and little warmth, but he keeps going anyway.



4. Into the Wild reminds me of Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau because that book influenced McCandless to embark on his journey, and Thoreau also gave up his life to live in a teeny cabin in the wilderness.



5. I guess Into the Wild reminds me of camp. Camp isn't exaclty roughing it, but being among nature, and if I had gone on long border, a ten day canoe trip in the boundary waters, I would be able to relate that a lot to Chirs's adventures. A guy I know and his friend went on a 40 day canoe trip up the Minnesota river to Hudson Bay. His adventure was pretty intense and that reminds me a lot of Chris McCandless journey.

6. Chris McCandless' story in into the Wild reminds me of when you hear about people moving away from the cities to get away. People trying to cleanse themselves of the modern times and all the stress of the cities and technology. In some ways it is like going to a cabin for a weekend. Its a time to get away from stress at home and relax in nature and cleanse yourself of things going on at home.

Reviews/ Flannel Planet Blog

God Loves Ugly by Atmosphere is the 2002 album from the RhymeSayers Entertainment group. The two members, Slug, also known as Sean Daley and Ant or Anthony Davis, are right out of Minneapolis. This rap group has had 5 albums released, God Loves Ugly being the second. All the words and lyrics are put together by Slug, the leader of the duo. Ant creates the music and beats for Atmosphere's great sound. In the album, Slug talks of Lucy. A girl he loves, but also a metaphor for many of lifes guilty pleasures. The lyrics are both smooth and flow well together, but also are meaningful and metaphorical. Like their first album Overcast!, God Loves Ugly is more upbeat and not as dark. God Loves Ugly was the first Atmosphere album to have great sales and was more well known than Overcast!. The songs on the albums such as Lovelife, have lines such as "And when I let them carry me to a cemetary I wanna be buried with a pocket full of clarity". Atmosohere has a great album that is fun to listen to at anytime and is worth every penny.

Taylor Swift's new album Fearless, is definatley a country-pop lover pleaser. Her lyrics both boring and girly are ones for the simple minded. Nothing deeper than "Hoping One Of Those Senior Boys Will Wink At You And Say You Know I Havent Seen You Around". This teenage singer may have a lovely voice but her talent in writing is nothing near where her fans believe her to be. At only nineteen, she has many years in front of her to get out an album that isn't full of flowery teenage girl lyrics. Overall, Swift has an amazing voice, but nothing else to back up her popularity but her pretty face. If someone offered the new album to me for free, I would say "No thank you."

Free Blog from the 30th.

So this week I was put in the routine becuase my wrist is all better and now I'm competing this weekend at regionals at Minnetonka High School. I'm pretty excited. This week at practice has been death though. I had to learn a new part, and new counts, and then throw the whole routine on Monday. I am very sore. Icy Hot is my new best friend. I'm in a stunt group with Lexi, Jenny W, and Allison F. They are really fun to work with. I have a sign in the cheer. Its not the HO sign but I have the N in Edina and the T in Hornets. Its pretty fun. So this weekend is regionals so we get our bid to nationals if we do well, which knock on wood, I think we will.

Obama Baracks my world.

So last night was pretty stressful in the beggining. I had CNN on, and cnn.com and msnbc.com open on my computer and I was talking to my cousin about how excited we were to know. Our family consists of some pretty intense liberal democrats. I had a sheet of paper in front of me with math, adding up electoral votes from the blue states, and when Obama hit 200, with California, Oregon, and Washington still to be tallied, he would be at 280. I was crying with happiness when Florida and Ohio went Obama. When those went blue, I ran upstairs and had a jumping and screaming session with my mom. We have been waiting for this for 8 years.

If I had the opportunity to sit down with President-Elect Barack Obama, I would first of all congratulate him on his awesome campaign and on his victory over Mccain. Then I would ask him what his exit strategy would be in Iraq and Afganistan. Getting out of the war is something that is very important to me right now. Then I would ask about the economy and taxes. What is he going to do about the still high gas prices, and the decreasing value of the dollar? I know his plans to make tax breaks for 95% of Americans but is that really what will be occuring? The third thing I would ask would be about civil rights, and the gay rights movement and proposition 8. I'm aware he supports civil unions for homosexual couples, but that still isn't equal to what straight couples have, and the United States is all about equality. If we still had time after talking about all of that, I would ask him about his family, and what kind of puppy they are getting for his two daughters for being supportive and being good during his campaign.

In 4 years, I think we will be out of the war, gas prices will be lower, the economy will be in better shape, we won't be 3 trillion dollars in debt, and gays will have equal rights still, hopefully. In four years I think Obama can do so much for this country. His campaign was all about change and thats what we need most right now. Things have to change.
In 2035, I will be somewhere in my forties. I will probably have a family, living in a house somewhere, with a steady paying job. In forty years, will there still be stready paying jobs? How much will my house cost? What will taxes be like? What kind of education will my children get? These things we don't know, but if we continue to have presidents like George W. Bush, then I may as well move out of the country now, but if we have presidents that live up to there high expectations and hopes such as Obama, then I think things are going to be alright in 2035.

Love Poem

If- Paul Laurence Dunbar

If life were but a dream, my Love,
And death the waking time;
If day had not a beam, my Love,
And night had not a rhyme, --
A barren, barren world were this
Without one saving gleam;
I'd only ask that with a kiss
You'd wake me from the dream.
If dreaming were the sum of days,
And loving were the bane;
If battling for a wreath of bays
Could soothe a heart in pain, --
I'd scorn the meed of battle's might,
All other aims above
I'd choose the human's higher right,
To suffer and to love!

I think this poem is about how love is so wonderful and also how love can make you suffer so much. Dunbar uses metaphors like "If life were but a dream, my Love, And death the waking time;" that are saying that if life was only a dream and when we woke up we died.

Poetry...

America by Allen Ginsberg
America I've given you all and now I'm nothing. America two dollars and twentyseven cents January 17, 1956. I can't stand my own mind. America when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb. I don't feel good don't bother me. I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind. America when will you be angelic? When will you take off your clothes? When will you look at yourself through the grave? When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites? America why are your libraries full of tears? America when will you send your eggs to India? I'm sick of your insane demands. When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks? America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world. Your machinery is too much for me. You made me want to be a saint. There must be some other way to settle this argument. Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister. Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke? I'm trying to come to the point. I refuse to give up my obsession. America stop pushing I know what I'm doing. America the plum blossoms are falling. I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for murder. America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies. America I used to be a communist when I was a kid I'm not sorry. I smoke marijuana every chance I get. I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet. When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid. My mind is made up there's going to be trouble. You should have seen me reading Marx. My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right. I won't say the Lord's Prayer. I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations. America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over from Russia.I'm addressing you. Are you going to let your emotional life be run by Time Magazine? I'm obsessed by Time Magazine. I read it every week. Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore. I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library. It's always telling me about responsibility. Business-men are serious. Movie producers are serious. Everybody's serious but me. It occurs to me that I am America. I am talking to myself again. Asia is rising against me. I haven't got a chinaman's chance. I'd better consider my national resources. My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles an hour and twenty-five-thousand mental institutions. I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underprivileged who live in my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns. I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go. My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I'm a Catholic. America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood? I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his automobiles more so they're all different sexes. America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe America free Tom Mooney America save the Spanish Loyalists America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die America I am the Scottsboro boys. America when I was seven momma took me to Com-munist Cell meetings they sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the workers it was all so sin-cere you have no idea what a good thing the party was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have been a spy. America you don't really want to go to war. America it's them bad Russians. Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians. The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia's power mad. She wants to take our cars from out our garages. Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Readers' Digest. Her wants our auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingsta-tions. That no good. Ugh. Him make Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers. Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help. America this is quite serious. America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set. America is this correct? I'd better get right down to the job. It's true I don't want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts factories, I'm nearsighted and psychopathic anyway. America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/allen_ginsberg/poems/8318

I picked this poem because I think the tone and voice of Allen Ginsberg are clearly heard and the subject of the poem interests me. I love seeing different perspectives of peoples opinions and experiences with our country. The title of the poem is pretty straightforeward. The poem is about the problems with America. Allen Ginsberg uses personification of America to make it seem like a person. He does this throughout the whole poem, and it gives the poem more depth and understanding of where he is coming from. The tone and voice in the poem is what really catches my attention. Ginsberg's voice is heard cleary heard all through the poem. The tone is bitter, opinionated, even angry. Its also shows some hope for our country, and maybe tries to inspire others to care about what is going on in the world, and not see things the way the news tells us to.

"Tis but a mere cathole."

So my possible titles for my personal narrative consist of:

• Back To Pine Tree Shores Once More
• Half Moon and Homaji Shores
• Stay Low to the Ground
• Rock Me Mama
• But if I wern't a counselor.....