Miranda: English II, Section F

Blog # 7: Reflection On Beyond The Color Line

 

I think the movie is interesting. Granted, we haven’t quite finished it, but I do think it is interesting to hear African Americans speak openly (or at least try to, because maybe some people feel uncomfortable about speaking openly about their racial experience, which is a problem in itself) about their lives and racism and how it has affected them. Parts of the movie that I remember as especially interesting (so far):

 

1)    Part about Martin Luther King Jr.

2)    White woman in an interracial marriage joining African American gospel choir

3)    People’s experiences that they remember from being younger. How it was not so long ago that the world was like that, and that some people still think that way.

4)    Man who opened an integrated church: his racial views were changed by Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, completely transformed him as a person

5)    Police force is mostly racially tolerant and respectful, as is the army

6)    Morgan Freeman: even though the south is sometimes racially discriminate, Freeman lives in the south because it is his  hometown, it is where he grew up, and where his roots and ancestry are.

 

 

Question to ponder:

How can we/I help to erase racism in the United States and eventually the World?

1) Talk to people

            -ask them why they think they are better than another racial group of people

            -have diversity retreats like Face It where people can talk openly to each other about their views and opinions about racism, and reveal their experiences with racism.

2) Get people to stop talking about other people in derogatory terms or thinking that they are better than someone else because of their race or ethnicity

            -talk back to them

3) Respect people of different nationalities and their cultures. Get interested in what they do to preserve or continue their traditional culture

            -erasing racism isn’t about being color blind, it’s about respecting other people and their culture and it’s about not making derogatory comments about someone else or disrespecting them because of their race

            -erasing racism is about accepting people for who they are, whatever their differences, and whatever their beliefs, respecting people no matter what.

 

This blog is 353 words, but I actually want to write a short follow-up blog once we have actually finished the movie so that I have a true sense of what the film is about. Thank You.

Blog # 6: Reflection on Body Bio

Overall, I think the Body Bio was an enjoyable and successful experience. I enjoyed working on the project (the actual butcher paper), developing a thesis about my character, trying to illustrate that thesis in a creative way, and then presenting it to the class. I think the project was very successful because it really forced me to delve deeper into my thesis than just finding quotations to support it, but also, having to illustrate it in a creative way made me ask questions like: What is my thesis really saying? What is the most important part of the thesis? I have discovered that questions like that are always questions you should ask about any piece of analytical work in order to discover the true essence of what it is saying.

I think the Body Bio also helped me in that it was an experience with a deadline in which me and two other people essentially had to create an analytical thesis and argument about a character, with supporting quotations and significant happenings, and illustrate it on a piece of butcher paper in three class periods (in addition to a few Free periods). I think the project improved my skills in working and communicating with other people. Although in some situations, I felt like I was being bossy and taking hold of the situation too much, I think it payed off in the end, but that was definitely really hard for me to have to do. I thought both of my other group members, Caitlin and Emily worked hard and diligently to create a successful project, and that we all worked together well and became closer through the experience.

Our actual project, as in the butcher paper realization of Jordan Baker and our thesis and argument about her, I think was really successful. We all worked hard to illustrate our argument in a creative way, and I think we were successful in getting our point across.

Although we did struggle at times with problems within our group, our working together was successful, with very few exceptions. I don’t think we went through any other difficulties besides that, which, when that occurred, it was very short-lived. My group and I used ichat to communicate about our ideas for the project, which really worked, with a few exceptions when we got distracted from the job that was at hand.

I personally thought our oral presentation was good, and I think we were able to further explain our thesis to the class when we explained the color and our choice of quotations.

Overall, I really enjoyed the project and I thought that it was a great, artistic way of communicating a thesis and argument without writing an essay. It was a great project that gave us a chance to express ourselves and our ideas in a very creative and artistic way, rather than writing papers.                                                   

Body Bio: Jordan Baker: Foul Dust

 

Thesis: Jordan Baker is an anchorless, amoral, superficial woman who feeds off, embodies, and expels the foul dust that corrupts the upper class social sphere.

Anchorless: anchor with a broken chain

Amoral: stepping on a cross

Superficial: thought bubble, social ladder, climbing, trying to get to the top

Feeds off foul dust: grabbing it with both hands

Embodies foul dust: foul dust all over her

Expels foul dust: outlined with foul dust, and foul dust coming out of her mouth

Significant Happenings:

1) first time Nick sees Jordan, seems to be floating, anchorless, also, holds head high

2) Bad Driver

3) Last Scene, Baker is in a big chair with her head held high, doesn’t really care about what Nick is telling her about

4) A party scene, Nick says she carries herself jauntily

5) At some party scene, with rich people, showing that she is trying to be part of the upper class

 

Visual Symbols: foul dust, colors of shirt and pants: yellow=corrupt, social ladder, depictions of scenes in the book, anchor and broken chain, stepping on cross

 

Quotations: Minimum of Three

1)    Miss Baker leaned forward unashamed, trying to hear. (14)

2)    Seemed to have mastered a certain hardy skepticism (15)

3)    Critical unpleasant story (18)

4)    Leaning a little backward and looking with contemptuous interest down into the garden (42)

5)    This is much too polite for me (45)

6)    Urban distaste for the concrete (49)

7)    There was a jauntiness about her movements as if she had first learned to walk upon golf courses on clean, crisp mornings (50)

8)    This clean, hard, limited person, who dealt in universal skepticism, and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm (79)

9)    Her wan, scornful mouth smiled (80)

10) “there’s something very sensuous about it—overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands” (125)

11)  begun to balance an invisible but absorbing object on the tip of her chin (134)

12)  too wise (135)

13) uncertainty of her own movements between hotels and clubs and private houses (155)

14) she lay perfectly still, listening, in a big chair (177)

15) chin raised a little jauntily (177)

16) engaged to another man (177)

17) “I don’t give a damn about you” (177)

18)  “You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess” (177)

 

unashamed

hardy skepticism

unpleasant

contemptuous

“This is much too polite for me”

urban distaste

jauntiness about her movements

clean, hard, limited

dealt in universal skepticism

leaned back jauntily

wan, scornful mouth

too wise

uncertainty of her own movements between hotels and clubs and private houses

she lay perfectly still

chin raised a little jauntily

engaged to another man

“ I don’t give a damn about you”

“It was careless of me to make such a wrong guess”

Initial Brainstorming and Close Reading

“I looked at Miss Baker, wondering what it was she “got done.” I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her gray sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan charming, discontented face.” (11)

Elegant, proud, dignified.

Holds herself up.

Slender, brown tanned skin, grey eyes, autumn yellow hair.

Carries herself nobly, almost to an exaggerated extent, so that she seems like a “cadet.”

“She got up slowly, raising her eyebrows at me in astonishment, and followed the butler toward the house. I noticed that she wore her evening-dress, all her dresses, like sports clothes—there was a jauntiness about her movements as if she had first learned to walk upon golf courses on clean, crisp mornings.” (50)

Athletic. Carries herself in an almost arrogant manner. Bounces with nobility when she walks. Kind of rigid at the same time. 

Passage about Daisy: she was very envious of Daisy: rich, went around with a lot of guys. (75)

“ It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan’s golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner. Suddenly I wasn’t thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more, but of this clean, hard, limited person, who dealt in universal skepticism, and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm.” (79)

Golden shoulder, clean, hard, limited person, dealt in universal skepticism, leaned back jauntily.

Tan, but also presents herself as noble by the way she carries herself (jauntily). Clean, hard, simple, not complicated, their relationship is based on convenience, they are just there for each other. Limited person. Means the same thing, not complicated, not deep or full of problems, kind of on the surface. An observer like Nick. At the same time, not objective, synical and arrogant. Carries herself in a noble way.

“her wan, scornful mouth smiled” (80)

“ ‘Those big movies around Fiftieth Street are cool,’ suggested Jordan. ‘I love New York on summer afternoons when every one’s away. There’s something very sensuous about it—overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands.’” (125)

Likes it when every one’s away, kind of likes having only a few people in the city.

Sensuous/ Overripe

            -I don’t really know what to think about that. Interesting passage…to be explored in the future. I don’t really understand what it says about her and her character.

“It’s a swell suite,” whispered Jordan respectfully, and every one laughed. (126)

Not really arrogant around people of higher class, or at least, not in this one example. Kind of shows that she is not of Daisy and Tom’s class, because she doesn’t take it for granted.

“ It was Jordan Baker; she often called me up at this hour because the uncertainty of her own movements between hotels and clubs and private houses made her hard to find any other way. Usually her voice came over the wire as something fresh and cool, as if a divot from a green golf-links had come sailing in at the office window, but this morning it seemed harsh and dry.

…We talked like that for a while, and then abruptly we weren’t talking any longer. I don’t know which of us hung up with a sharp click, but I know I didn’t care.” (154-155)

End of relationship b/w Jordan and Nick, pretty much.

She moved around a lot.

Usually had a cool, fresh voice.

 “I saw Jordan Baker and talked over and around what had happened to us together, and what had happened afterward to me, and she lay perfectly still, listening, in a big chair.

She was dressed to play golf and I remember thinking she looked like a good illustration, her chin raised a little jauntily, her hair the color of an autumn leaf, her face the same brown tint as the fingerless glove on her knee. When I had finished she told me without comment that she was engaged to another man. I doubted that,

…

‘Nevertheless you did throw me over,’ said Jordan suddenly. ‘You threw me over on the telephone. I don’t give a damn about you now, but it was a new experience for me, and I felt a little dizzy for a while.’

We shook hands.

‘Oh, and do you remember’—she added—‘a conversation we had once about driving a car?’

…

‘You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride.’” (177)

She lay perfectly still. Chin raised jauntily. She clearly doesn’t want Nick to know that he hurt her, because that would make her feel weak, and she almost wants to make Nick helpless, by telling him that she is engaged to another man.

Significance of conversation about driving a car?

She still remembers it, but Nick has forgotten.

She admits that she is a bad “driver”, which can almost be extended to her admitting to being a bad person. She moves around a lot, is somewhat arrogant, from her physical descriptions, she lies, and cheats, but it gets covered up because she has a lot of connections. She is of a pretty low class, and her only permanent dwelling is her aunt’s house, but she stays with her friends around the country. 

Blog # 3: The Great Gatsby

 

First impressions: So far, a fantastic book. The writing is clever and wonderful. The characters are eccentric and interesting, but believable, likeable, and relatable at the same time.

Characters (first impressions):

Gatsby: vanishes, complicated personality, throws big parties but is also slightly insecure at times

Nick (the narrator): nice, clever, educated, determined (teaches himself about bonds), very likeable fellow

Daisy: nice, kind of flirtatious at times, fakes happiness but is very sad inside about her marriage

Tom: manly, strong, abusive, cheater (cheats on his wife), arrogant, athletic, seems to control the people around him (reminds me of Stanley from Streetcar)

Myrtle: don’t know much about her, cheats on her husband with Tom, seems kind of ditsy and child like, seems like Tom takes advantage of her, but I’m not sure

Jordan (Baker): LIAR, famous golf player, “hates careless people”

George Wilson: know very little about him, except that he is oblivious to the fact that his wife Myrtle cheats on him with Tom Buchanan

 

Gatsby:

 

Page 48: Gatsby:

 

“He smiled understandingly –much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of reassurance in it,  that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished—and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care.”

 

This is one of the first descriptions we get of Gatsby.

 

Says a lot about Gatsby. He is clearly somewhat mysterious, or he just doesn’t want to be known to his guests. He could easily make a big announcement that he is Gatsby and welcome everyone to his party, but he chooses not to. His smile is very interesting and it really affects Nick. It makes him feel like Gatsby understands and believes in him, and, that Gatsby is assuring him that he is the best he could ever want to be. It is kind of complicated, but it is clear that Gatsby seems to be a likeable character, if, the first time the reader is really given any information about him, it is to talk about his understanding smile. Nick also talks about the fact that Gatsby seems to have an eloquent speech pattern, that is slightly absurd, and that his words seem carefully chosen. In a later description of Gatsby, when he is telling Nick about his life, Nick notices that his story seems very rehearsed. Gatsby seems to conflict in so many different ways, he seems spontaneous in the way he constantly vanishes, but his speech patterns seem very rehearsed. Gatsby is proper in his manner, but he in no way conducts himself as the host of the party (except in that he doesn’t drink anything). Gatsby seems to defy stereotypes of rich people during this time period, in the way that Nick’s first impression, before he has even met Gatsby, is very different from what Gatsby is really like. Overall, like I have stated before, Gatsby seems like a very conflicted character, inside and out, and I am very curious to learn more about him as the story progresses.   

Blog # 2

My Antonia Essay Brainstorming

Length: 4-5 pages, double spaced

Topics

1. *Gender Roles
How do Cather’s My Antonia and Solomon Butcher’s photograph(s) (on the American Memory Website) blur the lines typically drawn to define the roles of men and women? What does this blurring suggest about life on the Plains in the late nineteenth century and gender roles? Be sure to narrow your focus on only 2-3 characters.
My Antonia & photograph—how do they break through gender barriers
• Antonia, defies gender roles…works in the fields (Jim’s grandmother doesn’t approve)
• Immigrants, forced to work for their families…no other choice-must support families…different lifestyle than town girls
• Victorian Womanhood: women, fragile, weak, gentle, innocent, helpless, etc.
separate spheres: men-public; women-domestic
• Life in the plains in the late nineteenth century defied gender roles mainly because most settlers were immigrants taking advantage of the homestead act, but they rarely had enough money to support themselves and women and children were forced to work in the fields and on the farm so that they could properly support their families
• Antonia…other hired girls
• Parallels with photograph
Photographs: depict working families, including women, children, and young women, according to Victorian Womanhood, women should stay in home all day and not work or sweat, but rather, manage the household. Families and immigrants who settled on the plains usually were very poor and lacked experience with farming. For most families, all family members had to work to farm, harvest, and care for the farm animals in order to support the family. Gender roles: equality, all had to work, there wasn’t a choice. Men often managed farms but women and children worked everyday. Sense of equality in standing up to hardship and obstacles.

2. -Land and Imagery
How do Cather’s My Antonia and Harvey Dunn’s painting “The Prairie is my Garden” and “Winter Storm” (viewable on Harvey Dunn Website) define an American sense of place and contribute to an aspect of a collective American identity? Focus your attention on only a few key, but substantive passages, in the novel to help narrow your focus.
• Jim talks about the land a lot, it certainly defines his identity
• American sense of place and contribution to an aspect of a collective American identity: pioneers; settling the unsettled land; starting afresh; starting a new country; Manifest destiny; homestead act; immigration; settlement
• Parallels with paintings

3. *Immigrants and American Identity
How do Cather’s My Antonia and Anzia Yezierska’s “America and I” (5 page short story) characterize the immigrant’s “voice”. Do these texts affirm the immigrant as an outsider? Or as an insider? For the immigrants represented in these stories, what does it take to be an “American”? Narrow your focus on only a few characters.
• My Antonia: immigrants make their own way, adapt to some American customs and traditions but keep their “old countries” in their hearts and minds
• Outsider or insider: More of an outsider than an insider. Kind of individual to who the person is. Some immigrants want to forget their past…others want to keep it alive. Mr.Shimerda is an outsider, he never finds happiness in the new country, and eventually, he misses his old country so much that he commits suicide. Lena Lingard and Tiny, and the Harlings are insiders they adapt to American culture, clothing, language, and commercial/entrepenuerial mindset and way of life. Tiny and Lena manage their own businesses, and Lena especially adapts to the clothing worn in America. Mr. Harling and Francis are both business people who run a big business. The Shimerdas, on the other hand, preserve their old culture and language. They insist that many things that they have from the “old country” are better than things in the new country. Many of Antonia’s children don’t even speak English, they speak Bohemian and they often eat traditional Bohemian food.
• What does it take to be an “American” (for immigrants)? Well, it takes an extreme adaptation to the customs and American ways of life. It takes an adaptation to the language and mannerisms of the English language. It is kind of complicated, I guess.
• Short story: (to be continued once I have read short story)

4. -Settler Life and Oblinger Letters
How do Cather’s My Antonia and any selection of the Oblinger Letters (from the American Memory website) help vivify settler life? How does this way of life contribute to American identity?
• American identity: settlement, making a way for themselves, esp. immigrants, hardships of settlement

[5. If you have an idea for another topic which needs to include both the novel and another source (visual or written), let me know in advance. I’m happy to help you work something out.] (too late for this one)

Blog # 1: Semester 2

My Antonia

Jim in the wagon on the way to his grandparents house:

“I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man’s jurisdiction. I had never before looked up at the sky when there was not a familiar mountain ridge against it. But this was the complete dome of heaven, all there was of it. I did not believe that my dead father and mother were watching me from up there; they would still be looking for me at the sheepfold down by the creek, or along the white road that led to the mountain pastures. I had left even their spirits behind me. The wagon jolted on, carrying me I knew not whither. I don’t think I was homesick. If we never arrived anywhere, it did nor matter. Between that earth and that sky I felt erased, blotted out. I did not say my prayers that night: here, I felt, what would be would be.” (page

I think this passage really displays a lot about Jim’s character and the way he is choosing to deal with the situation that he is in. I think overall, this passage is quite sad, but it also displays Jim’s maturity in thinking about the spirits of his mother and father.

In terms of Jim’s character, the passage displays the first time in the book when we see Jim’s relationship with the land and nature, when he says that it seems like they were “outside man’s jurisdiction”. Jim feels so far away from his home and he is observing the vast landscape of the land, seemingly full of nothing but land, and it leads him to accept the fact that he is probably outside of civilization and is just in nature. Jim almost gives into the land, but, to him, it almost doesn’t matter because he lacks roots in any place—he even says that he felt like he had been erased from the face of the earth.

In terms of dealing with the situation that Jim is in, he chooses to accept the situation for what it is. He even says that he feels that he doesn’t even have to pray that because he accepts his new life for what it is, saying: “what would be would be”.

The sadness in this passage is displayed in the passages about Jim’s parents and his lack of identity. I already felt a great deal of sympathy for Jim, even though this was only the 8th page of the book, simply based on the way Jim talks about his parents and when you think about all this young boy has been through, including the way he talks about his lack of identity and feeling erased off the face of the earth. He has just been leading a kind of tragic life. From his parent’s death, to being taken very far away from his home at such a young age, it is no wonder that Jim feels all alone in the world, because he really has no one to go to, and he probably doesn’t even know his grandparents very well. In some ways, Jim is leading a similar life to the immigrating Shimerdas and other immigrants in that he left his home and everything he knew in a place far away from where he is now.

When Jim talks about the spirits of his father and mother and the fact that he doesn’t think that they will be able to find him in such a far away place expresses that Jim really feels like he is being forced to leave everything he knew behind. This is a very sad passage because it is clear that Jim feels like he has no one to talk to and nothing is familiar to him. It must be very sad for Jim that he thinks his parents’ spirits won’t be able to find him. I also think it shows a certain innocence on Jim’s part in the fact that he is worried about his parents finding him even though he is so far away.

What Jim doesn’t understand yet, at his young age, is that when someone you love dies, they are always watching over you, no matter where you are. It doesn’t matter if you are on another continent, they will always be watching over. And the angels watch over you too, and there is so much good in the world, and so many positive people and things, and all you have to do is live and open your heart to what comes your way. Jim Burden shows a great example of this. Even though he has had so much tragedy in his young life, the loss of both of his parents, and the fact that he is moving to a completely new place in which almost nothing is familiar, and he expresses a certain lack of identity and doesn’t really know who he is yet. On top of all that, Jim is able to accept his situation for what it is and he seems to be prepared to live this new life and accept whatever happens. Sometimes losing something or someone you love or having a hard thing happen to you, makes you accept and love life even more and you just feel so lucky to be alive that nothing else seems to matter.

Above all, everyone must remember one thing…

LIFE IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ML 9:21 pm 1/16/07
(Ms.Rochette, I am so sorry that I forgot to Blog on Sunday. I completely forgot and I didn’t remember until today during class, when you talked about it and told us that you checked the blogs this morning. Now I blogged today and I’m sorry.)

Uriah Oblinger was a Nebraska settler who made use of the Homestead Act (1862) and wrote a series of letters (in the early 1870s) to his wife and family, who he left at their home in Indiana, while he traveled to Nebraska with his wife’s two brothers to stake a claim to a plot of land and make a new life for him and his family.

Uriah seems to be a very sentimental, compassionate man. The main object of his letters are focused on describing his journey, while minimizing the hardships he faces, and always keeping a positive attitude about the future and especially seeing his wife and children once again. Uriah writes the letters to his first wife, Mattie, his baby daughter Ella, and the rest of his family (in a more general sense). Although he describes the hardships of the weather “a hard storm of wind and rain set in and continued nearly all night” (Letter # 1), he seems to have a positive attitude about everything, and he often contradicts the hardships by saying that everything was better the next day. Uriah seems to be trying to almost console his wife, without actually saying that he is doing that, by maintaining a positive attitude about everything and telling her how much he misses her, and describing how happy he will be when he finally sees his family again. Uriah describes to his wife the conditions of the weather and climate, the topography of the land, the conditions of the horses he is traveling with, and the physical aspects of his journey and claiming land for he and his family to settle on. Uriah is courageous and daring, to be willing to be among the first to settle in Nebraska, and make the journey to the West. He is also compassionate and loving in the way that he seems to console his wife and tell her how much he misses her and longs to see her and their baby Ella. Uriah shows his strength and bravery in the third letter when he manages to keep one of his horses from running away, while also making she that she did not trample or step on him. Uriah displays humility, determination, and he refuses to complain, when he writes: “it is going to cost some privations, but I have made up my mind to stand them for the sake of a home. I know it will seem pretty rough to those who have never tried to do without wood or timber but it looks rougher on paper than the reality seems” (Letter # 3). This quote basically sums up the fact that Uriah has a positive attitude, determination, and he attempts to comfort and console his wife by making his conditions seem less bad than they really are.

Uriah Oblinger and his letters help me to imagine the settler’s life because he describes the hardships of settlement and being away from his home and family, trying to recreate a new life for him and his family. His letters also display the things that a settler has to think about, such as provisions, the legal necessities for claiming a plot of land, the weather, conditions of horses, and more. I think that Uriah’s life and experiences that I have seen through his letters have shown me that settlement was much harder than I ever thought. More than the physical hardship of reaching their destination and claiming a plot of land, and legally, actually having it become legitimized, trusting the government to protect that, Uriah’s letters showed me that sometimes the hardest part of settlement was simply being away from your family and home, and the things you know and love, and trying to almost make a new life for yourself. It makes me miss my family and my home, even though they are much closer to me that Uriah’s were for him.

My Debate with Mr. K

Hello Mr. K, you always tell us to come make a meeting with you if we are confused or unsure about anything having to do with soccer, so here I am. It basically all comes down to why I am not playing. I didn’t make a meeting with you to beg you for more playing time, I just want to know why I am not playing. So, tell me, Mr. K.

Well, when I am putting you out there I don’t see you making a difference for the team.

Okay, what do you suggest I do to make more of a difference out there? I listen to what you say, I work really hard, and I don’t understand why I am not playing more. I want to know concretely what I am doing wrong, or what I can do to do things right.

Well, in practice I just don’t see you working hard enough.

Okay, I am not questioning that, but can you give me an example of what you mean, so that I can have a better idea of what you are talking about.

Yes, for example, at Thursday’s practice, I played you a ball wide and you took a really bad first touch, and earlier in that practice, you gave the ball away about 3 times when we were playing keep away.

Forgive me Mr. K, but don’t you agree that those are only a few mistakes, and that soccer is a game of mistakes, and one of the only ways you can learn is by making mistakes. And everyone makes mistakes, Dominic, Monica, even you make mistakes. Also, if I am not mistaken, you had said that I was not “working hard enough in practice”, and I just don’t feel that these things display that I was not working hard in practice, but simply that I made a few technical errors.

Well, when we were running at Tuesday’s practice, I didn’t feel that you were working hard enough.

Mr. K, I feel that this is a really one time thing, I happened to be tired after working hard in the defensive drill we were doing, and I knew that if I went all out on the first sprint, I would maybe not be able to work hard in all of the others, but, I mean, I wasn’t jogging, I still feel that I was working hard.
Can we go back to my original question? Why aren’t I playing in games, and more importantly, why am I not starting? There are several girls who it is their first year playing on the team, and they start every game, but me, I don’t. Do you think that they are better than me? If so, why? And if it is about the position, I don’t care what position you play me at, just let me play. Do you want to know why I want to play? I’ll tell you, Mr. K, because I want to make a difference for this team, I want to work hard, and I want to make a difference, and to be honest with you, I don’t feel that you are giving me a chance. I don’t think that you are playing me enough to understand me as a player, and I don’t think you trust me. If I seem lost in 30 seconds of the game, boom, you yank me out and don’t put me back in until the last five minutes of the game, Dominic, she is having an off-game, she seems tired, or as the assistant coach put it, she seems like she doesn’t want to play, however, even though both of you keep saying “what’s wrong with Dominic”, “she seems like she doesn’t want to play” for 10 to 15 minutes, you still don’t take her out until like 15 minutes into the game, then the assistant coach takes her aside for a few minutes, and talks to her, and she goes right back in for the rest of the game, with out even putting on her warm ups, but why is it that I, who am trying to sort out what is going on for 30 seconds, get pulled out of the game, and get sat for the rest of the second half, until the last five minutes, why?

Well, Dominic is a very different player than you.

Look Mr. K, I think Dominic is great, what I am trying to get across to you is that I feel that you aren’t giving me a chance to show you what I can do, because if I am a little lost, I get pulled out right away, and sat for the rest of the second half, until the last five minutes. I understand that Dominic is a very different case from me, but, why does it seem like you and the assistant coach are watching my every move, and taking me out as soon as it seems like I am doing something wrong.

That really is not the case.

Very well, Mr. K, explain to me why, from you perspective, I wasn’t playing well enough to be kept in the game, and I will explain to you exactly why this happened.

To be honest, you looked like you were asleep out there, I just can’t have that.

Okay, first of all, I wasn’t asleep, and second of all, the reason I was lost out there was because, our sweeper at this time, was not making it clear to me whether I should be dropping back and marking, or just playing a defensive role in the mid-field. I was trying to listen to her instructions, while you kept yelling at me from the sideline.
Here is something else I want to tell you, I feel that you aren’t seeing the good things that I am doing in the games, but when I do something wrong, you take me out of the game. For example, after Saturday’s game against Culver City, you mentioned one play at the end of the game between Zoe and Sarah, and “if only we could have scored from that beautiful play”. Well, you know what, that was me too. I played it to Sarah, she played it back to me, then I played it to Zoe, who layed it off to Sarah, and then Sarah played it to Zoe again. I started that play and I was waiting for you to say my name, but instead, it seems like you just gave credit to Zoe and Sarah, when the beauty of that play had started with me. I understand that you can’t be expected to remember everything, or credit everyone for everything, but it makes it seem to me that you don’t see the good things that I am doing out there, and instead, you seem to just take me out when I do something wrong.
So, please tell me why I am not playing, and why I am not starting, because I want to make a difference on this team, and I don’t feel that you are giving me a chance.

Well, I don’t know.

Thank you very much Mr. K, I think that concludes our debate.

Exit, Miranda.

(This blog was posted today, Sunday, but it should have been posted yesterday, Saturday, so it is a day late, I am really sorry about this.)

1. Course Website, Art Gallery, “Kindred Spirits” and “Early Morning”
2.On your blog:
(Yes, this can count as an entry for this week or next week)
How do these paintings convey the individual’s relationship to nature? Use specifics…

Kindred Spirits

Summary:
2 men in the painting, the rest of the painting is a beautiful landscape that includes cliffs, a waterfall, and birds within it. In addition to many plants, and a flowing river or creek.

Initial Reactions:

The painting displays a beautiful landscape, and two men, one, at least, or whom, seems to be a scientist, or a knowledgeable researcher, who is most likely not only appreciating the landscape for its beauty, but also for its scientific value, probably containing several different types of birds, and other animals, as well as plants, and specimens in the water.

How does this painting convey the individual’s relationship to nature? :
In this painting, there are two individuals. One of which, who seems like more of a scholarly fellow—or maybe he is an artist!!! At first I thought he might be a scientist, judging by the folder that he is carrying, which I originally interpreted as a notebook, or a compilation of papers, with which he could take notes about his discoveries and observations. However, looking at the painting with a new light, it seems that the man is not carrying enough equipment to take evidence back to wherever he works, all he seems to be carrying is a brown folder or notebook, and some indiscernible long stick, which he is using, at the moment, as a pointing stick, showing the other man something off in the distance. The relationship of these men to nature is shown, not only through the fact that they have taken the time to go to a jungle to see nature, even though they seem to be wealthy men, who may live in the city. Their hats and clothing seem to show that they belong there, not that they are out of place, but that they have made an expedition to go out and see the wilderness. The man who is pointing to something off into the distance, is probably one of three things: an artist, who has come to paint this beautiful landscape, a scientist who has come to make observations about nature and different specimens, or an explorer, who has come to chart the lands and the wilderness. The most likely of these seems to me to be the artist. The man carries few materials, and the most needed to do artwork are a pencil and paper, both of which the man potentially has, and the way he is pointing seems to me to be pointing at a point in the landscape for him to paint, perhaps. Also, if he is a scientist or an explorer, he seems to have too little equipment or stuff with him to be either of those things. If the man is in fact an artist, his relationship to nature is that he shares it with the world through his paintings, and inspires a love for nature in people all around him. In this painting, it seems that he is trying to excite the man he is with, with a love for nature by pointing out a beautiful part of the landscape.

However, in a broader sense, the real answer to the question is that the individuals’ in the painting relationship to nature is conveyed in this way: they are tiny in comparison with all that is out there. In the huge landscape, the ratio of the unknown wilderness and the two men is almost scary. They are so small compared to the vast beauty of the landscape and the wilderness, which continues through the rolling hills of in the distance of this painting.

Early Morning

My first reaction to this painting, even though at first it was difficult to make out the details, was how astonishingly beautiful it is. The calm scene with a single solitary person in it is so peaceful and beautiful, and it is so sad that there are only a few places left like this in the world now, compared to what there used to be. If you think about it, every place was wilderness a long, long time ago.

This painting is just beautiful, and it is somewhat blurry in the version that I am looking at, but the simplicity and beauty of the nature is still very clear. The thing about nature is that, even though it seems so simple in comparison with computers and complicated technology, because it is just there, in comparison with the machines that have been invented, but then again, it is also so complicated, the shape of leaves, the shadows, the color tones of the water, the smooth ripples and rocks, the grass and the dirt, the huge trees in all of their fullness. I mean, this might be the first painting that I would actually want to own, because it is so beautiful. I feel that I understand nature more than other people might, because I have stayed in a cabin on a lake for, basically every year since I was born, with my family, but, then again, every year there are more and more motor boats, and (I can’t remember what these are called) but, little one person motor boats, I think they are called water skis. One side of the lake is settled, but the other side is really not settled at all going there. Also, for probably about the last five years, I have gone to a place called Mono Hot Springs with my family, where there are natural hot springs, and my dad likes to get up early in the morning and watch the sun rise between his toes, it is unbelievably beautiful, and we hike to two different lakes, and the San Joaquin River flows through the entire campground, and I have already mentioned the natural hot springs. When I am in these places, I feel really in touch with nature, and it is an unbelievable experience to go every year, we always have a blast. Anyway, these paintings really remind me of these places, and it makes me so happy to think about them.

The Individual in this painting’s relationship is shown through “its” proportion to the beauty of the nature and the big trees, and the vast body of water, and how small it is in comparison to the rest of the painting. I think that the fact that this painting doesn’t show the person’s face, or anything about them, except for their silhouette on the rest of the picture, shows, not only that nature kind of takes away your identity, and when you are really in touch with nature, you almost forget who you really are, and you can be someone else if you want, but also, the fact that it really doesn’t matter who the individual in this painting is, the fact that they are simply a silhouette shows that they could be anyone, which displays to me that anyone and everyone can appreciate nature, no matter who they are.

These paintings conveyed two main things to me:
1. That nature is so much bigger than people, and vast landscapes of wilderness can be so much bigger than a few small people.
2. That anyone, and everyone can appreciate nature, no matter who they are.

These paintings are so unbelievably beautiful!!!!!!!!

[ This blog (which is actually two blogs in one) was actually supposed to be posted yesterday (Saturday), but am posting it today, Sunday...I am so sorry about this...but it was a really fun blog because it made me think about the Adirondacks, and Mono Hot Springs, and nature, which is something that I love, and I thought that the paintings were just absolutely beautiful]