Assignment 9 - Thankful

Well it’s that time of year again and what better a topic than to write about what we are thankful for, right Whitman? Well I could write about how I’m thankful for my family, or loved ones in general. But I’m sure everyone else in the class will cover that. So I’m going to go with a different approach. Considering I’m not particularly thankful for some certain family members, and even some friends. There are people in my life I know I could not live without but does this mean I am thankful for them, not necessarily. I am however thankful for the support they give when they do in fact give it and for helping me get to the point in life that I am at now. I am thankful for the sacrifices my parents have made to better my life, also for the situations that taught me right from wrong. I am thankful for everyone I have ever encountered because it has helped to mold the person I am today. I am thankful to know who I am and what I want to do with my life. To have my path figured out and a set idea in my mind, I know this is hard for a lot of people. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to pursue what I love most, and that I have been able to continue going to school. I am thankful for the gifts and skills I have developed, and the abilities that I have gained, and for the power to know that things happen because of me, not to me. I am also thankful not for my present, or my future, but for my past. I am thankful to have made the mistakes I’ve made, to have lived my life the way I want to live it. I do not believe I would be the person that you see today if it wasn’t for my past. The things I chose to do in life and the people I chose to surround myself with are all a part of what shaped me into the person I am, and continue to shape the person I will be. Without it I would be a stranger to myself. I am thankful for the true friends that remained by my side and continue to do so, through thick and thin. For the people I truly love, and who truly love me. I am thankful for having a roof over my head and food in my stomach. In all honesty you would think a person would have a lot to write about when it comes to going over the things we are thankful for. But I can’t seem to think of anything else that truly matters, and that I really am genuinely thankful for. I could put things like technology, like this brand new television I got on black Friday, that definitely is something I like having, but I don’t really feel like writing a thankful paper full of material things. If that was the case I’d have a whole list of items. So this is the reality of what I am thankful for, take it as selfish, take it is ungrateful, but it’s the truth and it is what it is.

Assignment 8 - Dreams

Does music affect or influence the dreams we have?

When asked to write about a dream I felt again at a loss with yet another paper. Whenever I dream I wake up only to remember them for the first few minutes and then they fade away to nothing. I can never really remember anything but bits and pieces. This made it extremely difficult to write about a dream of my own. So instead I decided to turn this into a paper about music and how it alters our dreams. I asked a few of my friends about dreams they had and how they interpreted them, and if they think that music directly affects our dreams. After getting the input from two specific people I used what I’ve found to write this paper. We all interpret our dreams differently, and we all certainly dream completely different and yet almost the same in some instances. Dreams can be as simple as falling endlessly into a black hole to being as complicated as meeting Michael J. Fox in a field and using a time machine to escape a tornado all while ruthlessly fighting off a race of small green aliens called the Jackal-bears . I fell asleep one time to a song by Charlotte Sometimes – How I could just kill a man. I dreamt I had a butcher knife in my hand and was walking around killing people. Dreams occur during REM sleep and most of the time you don't remember them, I almost never do. It seems other people can remember their dreams every night, for a lifetime. Some people listen to music before, or while, they are falling asleep and dream about something that the song talks about. Does heavy metal music always make you dream of death, or violence? Does country music always make you dream of whiskey and sadness? Does techno music make you dream of bright lights, raves and pretty colors? Is it the lyrics or is the music itself? I’ve found that it’s more about the lyrics and what is being said, than it is about the melody. The words shape an image in your head and your dreams turn into a story told by the music. We all interpret this music differently. Some people may listen to a tape with running water noises and one person may dream of being on the water, an enjoyable experience, while others may dream of drowning. When I asked my friends how they think the music affected their dreams they both gave me examples and in both of these the dreams were actually influenced by the lyrics itself. Where one friend dreamed of death after listening to Rob Zombie music while falling asleep, and another dreamt of breaking up with someone after listening to a song by 3 days grace. We are all different, and yet we are all the same. We fall asleep listening to music and our mind adjusts to what its hearing while we are asleep and it does affect our dreams, some more than others. Some people may not even notice it, but it does happen.

Assignment 7 - Copyright Infringement ?

I’ve decided to write my persuasive paper about illegal downloading on the internet. In this day and age with all of our technical advancements, you can now acquire music, movies, television shows, and much more from P2P software such as Lime wire, Kazaa, or Utorrent. These software programs enable you to download torrents, or raw copies for free. If these things you are downloading are copyrighted it is illegal to download them without purchase. Should downloading be illegal? When caught and charged, criminal penalties can be as high as five years in prison or $250,000 in fines. The first person taken to court was a woman from Minnesota named Jamie Thomas, she was charged with violating the copyright law and sharing illegally downloaded music. After being sued by 6 different record companies, Jamie ended up paying $220,000 dollars for the dozens of songs she downloaded on the internet. They said she had shared 1,702 songs total. Jamie was the first one taken to court for this because the others that were sued had settled with the record company’s outside of court. She said she would fight them because she believed she had done nothing wrong. Is downloading music and movies on the internet really wrong? I believe not. Jamie simply left the files on her computer, this is not considered sharing. But according to the record companies, it is. When a person is downloading music for personal use, to listen to in your home, or while you’re working out, this should not be a problem legally. It is when you are downloading for free to turn around and sell or make a profit, that the record company’s should step in and sue someone. But is it really harming their income by a substantial amount, or are they just butt hurt that we don’t have to go through they’re corporation to listen to or watch the things produced/created by them ? There are several artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Theory of Deadman, Breaking Benjamin; hell even old timers like the Rolling Stones give a lot of their music away for free download. I understand that the reproduction of said music is wrong, or to claim it as our own. But the internet is a universal copying machine. We have people’s identity’s being stolen every day, people’s bank accounts getting hacked, credit cards being used online, this is the theft we should be watching for. Not the claim of theft against record companies for trying to listen to some good music, without paying an arm and a leg. If you are not re-selling the music or movies, then there technically isn’t any copyright infringement, which basically is the only thing they have the “right” to sue for. If you disagree with my paper, just remember this next time you hear a song from your favorite artist and decide to buy their new CD. You go out and pay the 20 bucks, get it in the CD player and start listening. You suddenly realize all but the one song you previously heard sucks, and now you’re out 20 dollars for one song, basically. This could have been avoided had you downloaded the CD to listen to it, then go out and buy it if you want. I see no harm in the exclusive use of this downloaded content, as long as you are not re-publishing it for financial gain, or claiming it as your own. We have millions of people in the world who continue to purchase CD’s, DVD’s, concert tickets, and movie tickets, it’s not like the majority of us downloader’s don’t buy music, I know I still do. You can now even purchase the mp3’s themselves, without getting a hard copy CD, what is the point in this? Why would I pay 13 dollars for MP3’s when I can get them for free? The downloading of music for free is something that will continue to come up in our courts for the next few years until, I believe, we will no longer see software being produced to enable us to download. I do not think this is good, we will just go downhill from here, pretty soon you will not be able to download anything for free. We download free programs and software all the time, download.com thrives off listing the tons of programs that are free for home use, as well as sharing. If we continue down the path we are going now all personal-use software will turn to a “ Free to Try “ basis and cease to be, If you’re not willing to pay for it. Again, I see no true copyright infringement here, I only see agitated musicians, producers, and software developers mad that they didn’t squeeze an extra unnecessary penny from my pockets. Fight the system people, and happy downloading.

Assignment 6 - Responsibility

This isn't long enough, I need to make it longer somehow but im lost. So anyway this is it for now...

The Weight of Responsibility

Some people have a natural gift inside them, a gift that most of us take for granted, and others only wish they had. What is this natural gift? It’s the ability to take the responsibility that is given to you in life and use it to better ourselves. Others shake this ability off, at whatever age, I’ve seen no limits. You can be old or young, the minute you make the decision to not care, is the minute you lose all responsibility.

The difference between a responsible person and irresponsible one is rather simple. It comes down to dependability, and being able to accept and learn from change. Whatever these changes may be, it is our RESPONSIBILITY to learn from them and adapt to them, as well as any situation we encounter in life. As a great quote once said life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. What this means to me is that people get too comfortable in a state that suits them, and when something abruptly changes in this state, some people don’t know how to alter themselves to acclimate to these changes.  Some people choose the easiest way out and rely on others around them to sort of hold them up, to bear the weight of both of their responsibilities in life. Such as family members, or friends, these people can be anyone really, complete strangers even.  The reality of the “Real World “begins to slowly doom in on these people, whether it is sparked by a single situation or multiple ones.  They crumble when faced with it. It is a sad fact that many of us claim responsibility but when it comes down to actually owning up to our own actions and thoughts, the majority of us back away, without even realizing it. It is sort of an unconscious effort thrown out by the scared, unknowing feelings the can cloud peoples mind when confronted with it. But there comes a point in life when you figure out exactly the type of person you are going to be and the type of life that you wish to lead. When the path you have for your life gets interrupted, you either revise your plan or you don’t. The people that don’t, give up and give in. They lose the trust given to them by others, and a lot of people never seem to gain it back. Once responsibility is lost it is one of the hardest things to truly get back. It requires hard work and adjustment, things that these people didn’t have, which is why they lost the responsibility in the first place. So how do you go about getting responsibility back? Responsibility is not something you are entitled to, it is not given freely. It is something as effortless as just doing what you said you would do, period. No excuses, no stories of why you can’t do this, or do that. There will always be things that are beyond our control, responsible people will know this, but also know that unless you are being forced to do something against your will, you can always influence the outcome of a situation. This is where revising your plan comes in. When faced with circumstances that we ourselves cannot control, we either try to modify the outcome, or we give up. Don’t make promises you know you can’t keep, and don’t take on more or extra responsibility than you think you can handle. Some people don’t choose the responsibility placed with them, others have that choice. People have responsibility dumped on them, It is difficult at times, but again something we must adapt too. I have adapted as well as I possibly can with the responsibility I’ve been given, and will continue to do so. I believe that life is a series of choices and mistakes that are here for our betterment, and this includes taking the responsibility of life as it comes and not running from it.

Assignment 5 - Thoughts

 In the first century, a philosopher named Epictetus said, "Men are disturbed not by events which happen, but rather by the opinion they have of these events." Another version of this says, "Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things." What this means is that it isn’t the event that made you feel this way, it’s the way you view the event. Like when you are in line at the gas station and someone cuts in front of you, or takes too long at the register. You begin to get annoyed, or irrational. You react based on the way you perceived that event. Let’s say the person who cut in line happened to be mentally challenged, and after you hear him talk you discover this. Now you’re probably thinking “ Oh that poor man “ rather than being angry and thinking something like “ What a jerk “.  Our feelings and actions are based on our thoughts rather than just the events around us. Have you ever noticed how some people overreact way to much for a simple misunderstanding ? Or how others can act like nothing ever happened, and remain calm and collected, when they’ve just been involved in an upsetting incident, such as a car wreck. It’s amazing to think that we could all be like these people if we just stopped to think for a minute before we jump to conclusions. Our mind has a way of processing things, and if we learn to control how our mind processes events, we can learn to lessen the stress certain events have on our mind and body. Some people let their thoughts get them sick, or completely upset their entire persona based on an event. People must learn to take responsibility for their own thoughts, and not blame others for our attitudes. It isn’t your teacher’s fault you failed, it isn’t your doctor’s fault your sick, it isn’t your friends fault you’re a loser. You get angry at your teacher for failing you, but if you stopped to think before jumping to that certain emotion, take the time to think about exactly why you were failed. We need to learn to control our thoughts, not the other way around. We must use the power of thought to better our understanding of the events we encounter daily, and not let them overpower our common sense. The one thing we should have absolute control over is our thoughts. Some people get so angry at others, not because that person harmed you in anyway by sharing they’re opinion, but because the more you think about it the more you turn it into something it is not. People interpret their own thoughts in a manner that makes them hateful. Several different cognitions, or thoughts, are constantly running through their head. Cognitive dissonance is when you have two thoughts that sort of contradict one another. Such as if you like a certain type of food, but at the same time you’re trying to loose weight. So although you may want the food, at the same time you do not. During our day to day we constantly go through this cognitive dissonance, if we are faced with a situation in which I mentioned earlier where a man cuts in front of you in line, your first thought was originally a hateful one but now you have seen that this man may be mentally challenged your thought has changed to the complete opposite. This is a type of cognitive dissonance.
My point to this paper is to conclude that our thoughts are to blame for our hateful, and spiteful attitudes. That if we just took a moment to stop and really think about what it is we are processing at the moment, that a lot of us wouldn’t get upset as easily as we normally do. From what I can tell, we are responsible for our actions and the repercussions that come from them. We do have free will, and that allows us to make all kinds of choices about how we are going to react. Unfortunately, many people spend much of their time being mean, spiteful, angry and all of the above. Rather than taking the time to think out the situation, they jumped to the first emotional conclusion and stuck with it. But so much of this goes on unconsciously that we are often not aware of the reasons for behaving negatively.  I think if we all learned to be a little more patient with our thought processes, the world would be a much better place.

Assignment 3 - True Friends -

I think that writing a paper with a completely open topic is something hard to do. The only real instruction we were given was it has to be something we care about, for me this narrows down my topics none, as there are tons of things I care about. I didn’t want to write about materialistic items, and objects, such as technology, or something like that. So instead I decided to write about friends, true friends to be more specific.
What is a true friend? A true friend is the person you go to call when you’re on the toilet and have an amazing epiphany. They’re the only person that will gladly accept that call and laugh at your awesome epiphany all while knowing you are currently sitting on the shitter. It’s being able to decipher an acquaintance from a true friend.  The differences are slight at times, but they are always there to remind you. True friends do not judge us; they accept us for who we are. They do not try and change us, or force their views upon us. True friends give you the unmistakable feeling of complete comfort that you only feel with those certain people. The simplest way to put it is an acquaintance will help you up when you fall down; a true friend will stand there pointing and laughing until you pick yourself up. True friends, the ones you can’t stand at times but wouldn’t give up for anything in the world. I cherish these moments I have with my true friends, moments that when you look across the room at a person and the two of you burst out laughing for no particular reason at all.  The moments in life when you have an entire conversation with a person that lasts for hours and the only real topics covered were things like how you managed to get stuck between the wall and the bed, or how you manage to get your nose ring stuck in a spiral notebook. Topics like how many hot dogs, or miniature sausages, you can fit in your mouth at one time, or how twizzlers and mountain dew don’t mix well together. Topics like these that make getting up and doing your daily chores worth-while. I’m not talking about people we spend a few minutes a day conversing with. I’m talking about the people in your life you couldn’t bear not speaking to for more than a day, the people that sincerely mean something to you. The people that lead to your every day happiness in life, the same one’s that give you that horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach when they are upset with you.  Experiences and adventures with my true friends have been a learning experience in the past, and continue to keep me guessing about what will happen tomorrow, or on any of our future endeavors.  I couldn’t live without the nights of steady rocking out on guitar hero, or spontaneous trips to the park in the middle of the night, or even the road trips we take were we drive each other insane from being in the car too long with one another.  To have someone there to make me laugh and to comfort me on difficult days, and the patience to deal with me, this is the most wonderful thing in the world. The quote “A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.” Pretty much describes how I feel about my friendships, and relationships. You can never really truly accept someone until you understand their past and once you have attempted this, you will pass your judgments, and where people fail is they use these judgments on someone’s past to determine their future, as friends. Rather than get to know the person as they are in the present. It’s a rarity to find someone who accepts you, the past you, present you, and the you to come. I love that I do not have to hide my past, or lie about anything I have done, or will do for that matter. I like to be completely open and honest with my friends and loved ones, and by doing so it seems to put our relationships to the test. The ones that stick around through thick and thin are really the only ones that matter. Life isn’t about making as many friends as possible and spending 5 minutes a month saying hello to 40 different people whose last names you probably couldn’t guess even if they spelled most of it out for you. It’s about finding those certain select few that will be with you until the very end, and put up with your sorry ass along the way.
This, my colleagues and acquaintances, is a true a friend.

Assignment 2 - The Death Of Humpty Dumpty & Anne Yokely

Okay so here is the rough draft of what I have written so far. I don't know if this is the story I will use, or if I will write something different. Please let me know what ya think.. I think the ending needs some work, but I'm pretty much tapped out for the night. Also Neverland is underlined because I might change it, I'm not sure, as well as " Anne Yokely" again that might not stay the same.. Hahah. I'm open to suggestions if you have any...Anyway enjoy the story....

This is the story of how Humpty Dumpty met his great demise one late afternoon. There are many points in this story that are going to show you a darker, more twisted side to your favorite childhood fairy tales, so be advised. This story begins in the streets of Neverland where our main character Humpty Dumpty rest’s night after night playing his guitar on the top of a great big wall that overlooks Main St. He sit’s wallowing, strumming his guitar heavily, singing one tragic song over and over while he trembles and cries. He belt’s out this sad song in memory of his wife whom he lost in a drug deal gone bad with Neverland’s local Mafia of sorts, Pan & the Dwarfs. You see Humpty wasn’t really an innocent fairy tale character. He had addictions and faults just like we do. The story of the drug deal gone awry starts with Humpty’s addiction to cocaine. He met his wife at a party his friend Cinderella invited him to. They went to college together, and he knew she threw the best parties to get trashed at, so of course he decided to go. His wife, Anne Yokely, was there with a friend from school as well. Humpty saw Anne Yokely, from across the room and they instantly locked eyes. She slowly made her way through the abundance of drunken, and drugged up people scattered about the room, and over to Humpty. Meanwhile Cinderella’s cocaine dealer, or fairy god mother, whichever you prefer to call her, showed up to drop off her latest shipment of goodies. Humpty was the type of guy to try anything offered at a party and has tried cocaine once or twice before. So he decided to hit a line that Cinderella offered and put out for the two of them. Humpty, being the gentlemen that he was, offered Anne Yokely his line. She decided against doing both of them so Humpty snorted it up like there was no tomorrow. Humpty, enjoying the cocaine so much, thought it would be a good idea to get the name of Fairy God Mother’s dealer, he didn’t like dealing with middle-men. After a long talk and some heavy persuasion she finally gave up the number of her trusted co-worker. Now we fast forward a couple of years into the future. At this point Humpty and Anne Yokely have been happily married for a year and a half. Their addiction to cocaine got progressively worse and worse as their relationship continued. Each ones addiction seemed to fuel the others. It was a very unhealthy relationship, but a sort of love none the less. So anyway, remember when we talked about Humpty getting Fairy God Mother’s main connection’s phone number? Well up until this point every transaction Humpty has had with this person has been a smooth one. Well, one night when Humpty was at home with the misses pouring a glass of Jack Daniel’s for the two of them, they hear a loud pounding on the door, as if someone is trying to beat it down. He walks calmly to the door and opens it, only to find his friend Peter Pan soaked from the rain, his stomach protruding from his skin tight green t-shirt that was obviously too small for this middle-aged man. Again this is not your typical fairy tale character anymore, in this Neverland, Peter Pan is the head of the Mob. He’s gained a few extra pounds, and hasn’t shaved in months, his hair is matted and he would most likely remind you of a homeless man rather than a mob boss. Peter wheezes and coughs a few times, spitting as he does so, and pushes his way past Humpty and into the living room. Once his enormous figure shifted its way out from in front of the door Humpty then realized that he had brought the 7 dwarf’s along with him, this was never a good sign. Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy make their way into the living like a bunch of kid’s with ADHD on crack. They smash into the side table almost knocking his lamp onto the floor. Grumpy & Dopey were like the second in commands; they stood proudly next to Peter, chests puffed out as if they were capable of serious damage if you got on their bad side. The rest of them kind of just stood around talking amongst themselves, as if they had no purpose in being there. Peter started discussing the nature of his visit with Humpty as most of the dwarf’s settled onto Humpty’s couch. Peter began explaining that it had been 6 months since Humpty got an advance on a kilo of cocaine, and had still yet to pay Peter for it. Peter says something about him being a patient man, but hard times call for desperate measures. As he’s doing so Grumpy and Dopey slowly make their way to Humpty’s wife, each of them with this devilish look in their eyes. Anyone who was anyone knew what these two we’re really able to do if commanded by Peter. Humpty glances over and watches as Grumpy and Dopey grab his wife and pull her into the bedroom. Humpty of course starts to run over to his wife’s aid, as he does so Peter extends one large pudgy arm in front of Humpty, stopping him dead in his tracks. He shakes a single fat finger in Humpty’s face, telling him that he will stay right where he’s at and not move. Peter then walks to Sleepy asking him for a hammer. Sleepy sluggishly hands over a hammer that he brought inside with him. Peter then gets back to the room, going in and shutting the door behind him. This is where our story takes it’s most grim turn, I won’t go any further into detail than need be for this section. As Grumpy and Dopey hold down Humpty’s wife, Peter walks up to them, hammer clutched tightly in his hand, he holds it with both hands for a better grip. He then swings the hammer down onto Humpty’s wife’s hard shell, splitting her right down the middle. A huge crack turns into thousands of smaller ones right before their eyes. She begins oozing all her fluid’s out onto the bed and takes one last heavy sigh as she breathes her last breath of life out. Peter has an evil grin on his face as he throws the hammer down and exclaims to Grumpy and Dopey that they should clean this mess up. Peter walks back out into the living room laughing hysterically, pointing at Humpty and shouting how next time Humpty will pay with his own life. Humpty falls over crying, screaming for his wife. He’s in shock and frozen as he kneels on the living room floor, his head in his hands as he weeps. A few minutes later Grumpy and Dopey return to the living room and rejoin the group, smiling and laughing, as if they didn’t just help Peter commit murder. The group nonchalantly walks out of the house, slamming the door behind them, leaving Humpty there in a puddle of his own tears. Now back to present time where we return to this lonesome egg sitting on top a giant wall singing his sad song. This night is not like any other for Humpty. He sit’s and reflects, more so tonight than most other nights. He thinks about how life isn’t worth living without his darling, Anne Yokely. He comes to an abrupt decision to end this pitiful life he leads. He stands up and bellow’s as loud as he can, proclaiming his love. He takes one step forward, stepping into thin air. Plummeting forward and down, Humpty falls to his death from atop the wall, splattering him onto the crowded street below.

Interactions & Expressions

This is a blog I wrote a while ago while going through a discussion with a friend on how the people she chose to hang out with effected her attitude and her persona when she was around them, or speaking to them. I thought it was very hilarious, and interesting, how she talked down to certain people, or sounded condescending. As if she was speaking to a 6 year old. So I decided to go back and re-write this blog and take my thoughts on this subject and weave it into my photography to start a series I will call “ Expressionism “. I have a few select friends that have agreed to let me photograph them during some of their daily conversations and interactions. As well as photograph their different versions of various emotional expressions, to study and gain a set of images with a unique concept. First we’ll start off with interactions like in the original blog I wrote a while ago, and then move our way to expressions.

 Interactions...it's something we have on a daily basis, whether it is with someone you know or a complete stranger. Interaction: a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects (people, in this case) have an  effect upon one another.

Have you ever had the time and the want to acknowledge your own mannerisms, so well known to your circle of friends and, or to discover those of your acquaintances, or the people generally around you? Take a closer look at your conversations and actions as you go through your day. I’m always watching and listening to the people around me. I always interact with people, but at the same time I watch the way they interact with me. People are very quirky. It’s interesting to see the differences from person to person. The dramatic change and how quickly these mannerisms change based on the person you are talking to, or the mood of the conversation. How one person can have a false arrogance about them while talking to a stranger, but when this same person is talking to a friend all sense of indifference has left. They way people have a hesitation in certain situations, or give false encouragement to people, heavy sighs, hand, and foot movements, nodding, smiling, eye contact or lack there-of. All of these are things you can notice when a person is interacting with someone, and for a lot of people they don’t even realize what they are doing. We unconsciously assimilate information from the people whom which we are interacting with. This assimilated information help’s to guide our behavior and help in the decisions we make, whether it directly concerns this person or not.  

“ For both our pleasure and self-protection, we measure people frequencies, and we push for encounters with those in whose company we delight, and we guiltily seek to shirk meetings with the bores and bombasts. “ – David Manners. We go through our day to day life thinking we are individuals that you are your own person and you make who you are. But this is not entirely true. At the end of the day you would not be the person you are today had you not learned and processed each and every interaction that you’ve had starting from day 1. Even as baby’s we are slowly but surely soaking in everything around us. It has been proven time and time again. But hey that’s another subject entirely.

Assignment 1

The assignment is to write my overall experience with reading and writing up to this point in my life.

This is what I have so far, I don't know If this is actually what I'll turn in or not. :/

When asked to sum up my experience with reading and writing the first thing that came to my mind was “ How do you take a lifetimes worth of reading and writing and put it on paper in about 750 words ? “ I can answer the reading half of this because I have read enough to write about it, but to write about writing? It seems a bit redundant. I really have nothing to write about other than I never have enjoyed writing assignments in the past, and I can’t say that I have felt the need to sit down and regularly write my thoughts. I am more of an “actions speak louder than words “type of person, and am very outspoken. I think that plays a large part in my lack of want to actually write my feelings or thoughts, rather than speak them. I can only remember about 3 blogs that I’ve ever written in my lifetime, that have been something I had a general interest in actually writing. These blogs were written in a time of spiked emotion or lack of sleep, but for whatever reason I felt the need to do it then, but not now. I have never had a passion for writing, and I have never been able to get what I am really thinking onto paper as easily as I can in other ways. As for reading that is a different subject entirely for me. I have enjoyed reading since I was little. I was definitely one of those kids reading at a RED reading level while most people were stuck on BLUE, you’ve got to love public school’s measurements of people’s reading levels. You remember that color coded system of telling what the “average” is that you are reading at. So anyway starting out of course on childhood books that everyone read’s, classics like The Giving Tree, The Lorax, Charlotte’s Web, and yes even the Harry Potter series. I also used to read the Dear America books because I liked the perspective it gave while reading. These books were mostly written in first-person, like a journal. That always interested me. To think that these could actually be journal’s written during the war in Normandy, or whatever I was reading at the time, just blew my mind when I was younger. I eventually grew out of the Dear America books and moved my way up to my favorite author of all time, Ray Bradbury. My mom took me to the library one day and told me to check him out, as well as Robert Heinlein, another one of my favorites. The first book I picked up of his was The Martian Chronicles. To this day it’s still probably my favorite book in the world. My brain doesn’t choose to remember many things, but this book is definitely burned into my mind for life. This book was like a series of short stories, all having to do with Mars. He called it “a book of stories pretending to be a novel”. What made me want to read more of Bradbury’s work was the way each story differs and yet continues to stay around one central concept; that man can and will ruin earth. Like in a few of his short stories, where we manage to ruin mars as well, that relates to real life in my opinion. Which is more sad, the fact that Bradbury saw the end of society in his mind in the 1950’s, and how society will ruin the world as we know it. Or is it the fact that we enjoy reading about it? My full experience with reading and writing, or as a reader and writer, isn’t something I think I can put into 750 words. You would think a profile of me and my experience as a reader/writer would easily reach 750 words, but I don’t have anything more to write so I will be ending this paper at 665 words, or so.

I have nothing to say but....

I think my Creative Writing teacher is going to have a hell of a time with me. :)