Combine

The Combine is mentioned quite a lot in the story that we are reading. Chief uses the combine to portray an image to us, the readers. The Combine, is simply the Chiefs way to represent the higher, more powerful people in society that mow down the individuals that are below them. It is depicted by him as if it is a machine. Each part of this "machine" like force is depended on other types of machines to run this type of civilization, and for it to run smoothly, and thoroughly. The Chief notices this machine, and he is able to see how it is working. He notices the potential of this machine, and how it is able to mow down an individual, and transform him into whatever it wants him to be. He knows that if anyone tries to go against this machine, it will try its best to go after that individual and turn him into practically nothing.

 Anyone can say that anything is run like a combine. A job, a school, a prison, even the world? Yes, all of these could be said to be a combine. All of these things have rules. They also have people who are higher socially, and politically. Like in school, we have rules that we must obey while being inside the facility. When we leave these certain rules will no longer apply to us. We have disciplinary acts in case we do something out of hand. We have things that we must do during the time we are behind the walls of the school. We cannot leave whenever we feel we want to. School is like a combine. Without there being some sort of combine, school wouldn't be as organized, as it is. There would be way too many riots, or students misbehaving.

rules rules, and more rules..

I think I can speak for everyone, when it comes to how absurd some of the rules at Framingham High school are. There are also some rules that were never really looked at as serious as they are today. I dont like the tardy rule. Why should you get a saturday school for being tardy? excused, or unexcused. For some, I know their parents are the reason to them being late everyday. Students should not be punished for their parents taking them late to school. That is just ridiculous. I have yet to have had a problem with this rule, and I'm pretty sure I never will, but for those many students who have had trouble with this rule, I feel bad for. I know a few who have saturday school throughout the end of the year all due to tardies. When you hear this, you began to see how crazy this rule is.
There are also rules like the new ipod policy this year. I know many who like to tune the world out when they aren't feeling to well. Comfort is brought to them by their ipod on a bad day. Now students can't do this anymore. I find this ridiculous. If students use their ipod in class thats their own faults. They're the ones not learning why punish everyone by making this rule? Listening to your ipod isn't distracting anyone, unless it is loud, but thats when you ask them to put the volume down. Some teachers dont seem to care if you have your ipod, but then there are other teachers who get furious. I feel like that due to it being a new rule, it doesn't get enforced as much.
There is also the no phone policy. There have been times where I have had to text my mom to tell her that I will be staying after, or that I will not be staying after. How else would I be able to do this considering she is at work? This rule is just not right. We should be able to text during school. Maybe not during classes, but why not during breaks? Our school is like an asylum in a small way. It is mainly like it due to the rules that we have to follow. Both FHS, and an asylum like the one in One Flew Over The Cukoos Nest have strict rules for the place present. There are rules that are more enforced then others, but rules are rules. These rules limit your individual freedom while you are present at that specific location.

finding a cure, or experimenting for it

When doctors cannot find a cure for an illness or ailment, it is never alright to experiment on human beings in order to find a cure for the illness, or ailment. What if the so called cure you made was not a cure at all? You cannot use humans to experiment on. What if while experimenting on them you take their lives? What do you do then? There are always other ways to experiment on whether the medicine is a cure or not. You can experiment on an animal that functions similarly to a human being. Why would you want to take a human life, when there are other options. Why would you want to take that risk, when you can do more work, and have the cure be a working one or one that needs more development. I would never want to think that the vaccines we got were only experiments, and not foul proof. Why bother taking them if you’re not sure that they will actually work. Why would you want to risk you’re life when it is not even near its end. I highly doubt anyone would. It seems ridiculous for this to even be a question. It just goes all against morals. It endangers the lives of anyone who would be trying this cure. Would it be alright if a doctor said I can not find a cure for cancer, so I’m going to experiment, and then experiment and the result would be making it worse on the patients who take it. That would be plain wrong. It should even be a question. In class we saw the doctors perform lobotomies. In my opinion that is immoral and should never have been done. Why try and mess with a humans brain, when it clearly was not working?

Movies

Comedy:  The Hangover: The Hangover is very entertaining and funny. Its about a guy who is about to get married. He goes to California with his best friends as a last thing before he gets married. He has to bring his fiances brother with him. On the trip a lot of funny things happen such as them taking ruffies accidentally, which leads to funny and crazier mysteries.


Drama: I am Sam: This is one of the saddest dramas you'll ever watch. It focuses on a mentally disabled man who fights for custody of his 7 year old daughter. Throughout the movie you begin to connect with Sam, and share his feelings. You feel for him, and his struggle for custody for his daughter.


Romance: The Notebook: The Notebook is one of the most known Romance movie ever. It talks about a couple looking back at the past. The fell in love more then you could possibly count, but things would always end up getting in the way. In the end they end up getting married, and live together to create a happy love story.


Horror: Orphan:  Orphan is one of the best horror movies that I have personally seen. It has a remarkable twist in it, that I would never have guessed. The actors played a great part in making this movie a success. It was very good.


Animated: Despicable Me: Despicable Me is one of the most recent animated movie that I have watched, and I have to say it was funny, had good graphics, and was good overall. This movie had a good plot, and made you feel for the three kids that the movie focused on.


Action: Transporter: Transporter is one of the best movie series I've seen. It is a great action movie. It always has the guy driving people, but the story is always different. It is cool to see what trouble he has to fight through.


Adventure: Inception: Inception is mind-blowing. It keeps you thinking even after the movie is over. It is by far one of the best adventure movies I have ever seen. I still can't decide what happened at the end of this movie. It was just amazing.


Musical: Rent: Rent is one of the only musicals that I have watched, but from what I have seen it just doesn't compare to other musicals. It has everything, but instead of it just being a regular movie is it in musical form. It has comedy, romance, action, drama, everything a movie should have.



War: Black Hawk Down: Black Hawk Down is one of the best war movies I have ever seen. It portrays war like it is. The images in the movie was very realistic, and gives you the war feeling. I love watching it, and I have probably seen it around 5 times. It is great, and never gets old in my eyes.


Crime: American Gangster: American Gangster is a great crime movie. Denzel Washington in my opinion is the only reason it is as great as it is. He makes any movie good. I would recommend anyone to watch this, because you get the feeling of the days of the mob, and it is just amazing to see what happened.

Themes in Death of a Salesman

One theme that I have noticed is how a man is more dominant. Willy in this book is the person to provide for the family. His life revolves around his work so he can be there for his family and buy them the things they need. This gets contradicted though due to the fact that Willy has a mistress. His wife is in need of stockings but instead of buying his wife the stockings he buys his mistress a new pair. Linda his wife doesn't have the money to provide for herself thats why she depends on her husband. She stays at home and prepares the food for when he gets home.

Another theme would be cheating. In the family cheating is somewhat common. You look at Willy and what he is doing. He is cheating on his wife with his secretary. He provides his mistress with a lot more things then he does his wife. Then you look at his son Happy. Happy plays girls on a daily. He is not into commitment. Its one girl after another when it comes to him. These kind of traits seem to run in the family. Its as if Willy passed it onto his sons.

Finally there is the theme of falling apart. It seems as if not only the house is falling apart, but also Willy himself. Willy seems to be getting old, and not be able to take good care of himself. Also based on how he contradicts himself it makes it seem as if he isn't stable and cannot make up his mind about anything. The house is also falling apart. It needs fixing and no one is doing it. Willy's marriage seems to be going downhill as well. Even though it may seem clear, nothing is being done about it.

Willy

Willy tries to get his two sons to be successful in life, and not end up the way he had ended up. He brought the two of them up differently. Biff the older son who is 34 seems to represent the tragic side of Willy, and how vulnerable Willy is. Happy on the other hand seems to represent the self-centered and high ambition side of Willy. The way Willy tries to teach his sons is not well in my opinion.

I feel as if a son needs to know that the parent will be there for them no matter what, and support them no matter what the decision they make in life is, or if the decision is very bad help them make the better decision over all. Instead of making it clear that he is not happy with the way the lives of their sons are at the time period, and not supporting them so they can get back up on their feet, he makes it clear that they are not worth anything which brings their self-esteem down.

Willy is also very inconsistent with the things that he says. In a sentence he will use to contradictory words to talk about that one thing. For example he says, “Biff is a lazy bum!” then he says “There’s one thing about Biff… he’s not lazy.” He does this more then once. He does it throughout the reading. It is as if he cannot make up his mind. This leads to him being a bad parent to his two sons.

Linda does not point out what he is doing, but instead agrees with him. It is as if she loves him so much that she is blind by his flaws which are obvious to everyone else. I feel as if she harms him because by her doing this he is not learning. He just keeps doing it and feels as if there is nothing wrong with anything that he does.

Scarlet Letter Essay

In American Litterature we were assigned our second essay of the year. The first one was not that bad. I felt as if it just came to me, and whatever came to my head I jotted down. The topics are to talk about dimmsdales torment, and how he feels that it is a blessing from god, another would be to talk about whether it is better to live with guilt, or public shame. The third is to talk about how is Salem one could be forgiven for their sins by doing something, and how in Boston it is different. The last topic is to talk about the symbols in the Scarlet letter, and what role they play, such as the forest.

We were given a graphic orginizer so that it would be easier to write our essay. On the graphic orginizer everything is broken up so thsat writting the essay will be easier. On our graphic orginizer we need three quotes for each paragraph. On our final one it is one quote per paragraph. The essay is due on Tuesday. This gives me 3 more days to finish it.

I've already started part of it. That part is the graphic orginizer. I'm thinking of just finishing it this weekend so that I could give it to him monday to edit. Maybe if I do this I'll get a better grade. Hopefully I do since essays are a good portion of our grade. Hopefully I dont procrastinate while I am writing it, seems to always happen.