My observations on war obersvations

Recently i have read and watched a lot of material on wars. Through the soldiers' letter assignment and Slaughter House Five in college lit; as well as viewing Schindler's list for Film Theory. no matter what kind of account it be, there are always different interpretations of the war.

With the letters home from the Civil War, most of the letters were basic information because there was no news besides these letters. As time progressed, it seemed to get more in depth. But what i found interesting, there were no accounts bashing the enemy like you would see in Hollywood. The simply acknowledged who they were fighting and went on talking about more important things.

As with most things, war is relative. If you ever take a second to think about what the German soldiers were fighting for, they were fighting for economic freedom and a prosperous German nation; not all were fighting for the destruction of Jews. Hitler had an idea of liberating the German citizens from poverty to help aid his final plan. Granted his motives were flawed, but his means to supply his armies through manufacturing during the 1930's was a Godsend for Germany.

War, along with everything else, is relative. you learn a lot more from looking at the subject matter from the oppositions eyes, than merely defending your idea.

A slight similarity

As i read through chapters three and four, i made a minute connection to what Billy was going through on the train. he was herded onto the train car like cattle and only recognized by the number on the outside of the car. in order to keep the car clean he has to become a "dumper" and they share the floor space for sleeping. Though no where near the gruesomeness of his ordeal, is that of students attending a large school. They are only known by scores and numbers, having to create friendships and alliances to keep going. It is necessary for them to cooperate together in order to maintain a workings community.

this is just one thing i noticed while reading. obviously it is under different circumstances and different means of survival, but something similar.

Today of all days, probably the most absurd and the most confusing day to watch people. I saw on the news that a worker at Wal-Mart was trampled by the mobs entering the store. Ironic that their slogan is "Save Money, Live Better;" more like "Open Early, Get Trampled to Death." I'm glad to see that the economic crunch hasn't hindered our thirst for buying random crap we dint need; at least not that much.

As i walked through the mall, not caring where i was going for i dint need to buy anything. I found a duo of girls dressed as moderately normal zombies; dragging a foot, making noises and walking in peoples direction. This spectacle immediately reminded me of the sociology project in which we had to break a social norm.

Call me weird but it i took a seat and watched others reactions too them. Being that their costumes were not too over the top, a casual passer-by wouldn't notice right away that anything was wrong and get sort of afraid when one of the two girls started to make a noise as she looked up. It was hard not to laugh, everyone was too involved with their shopping to even pay attention to anyone else; unless they were dressed up as a half-dead zombie.

so next time you enter a mall, watch your step, you might run into a relative back from the dead who needs to buy a new coat; it is colder than you thought in the afterlife.

Since i didnt share during class

well since Kunkle started to complain about us not sharing during class i figured i might as well share it now. This is my journal entry in response to our little war that we had experienced, and it reads:

It has been used for years to visually portray the fight between good and evil; the classic scene of a person with the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. This pictorial usually lasts a few seconds or minutes at the most, but never much longer. It is a war of choices to decide the route to take, but which do you go with?

Being raised in a single mother household raised me quickly. I had to be my own "man of the house" in some ways. Yes my mother did more than i ever though she could, but it was like trying to play patty cake by yourself, it just doesn't work right. In the past few years the constant conflict within myself has escalated to an utter war of the mind. Do I act as a son, or as a roommate who is here to support each other? How much weight do the rules carry that have neverbeen set in stone? Even what words do I use to communicate with my mother? This is a war that i see myself loosing if I don't keep myself in check. It is close to evacuation day and i head off to college, but I have found it clear that no matter the circumstances, obeying the parents is neccessary. They can still get on your nerves like never before, but obeying the parents that raise you is the only sound way to produce a calm and collected relationship.

have a good day

Hurry! this is due tomorrow

Yes it is Monday night and i just remembered that i need to have a blog post up by tomorrow, or at least i think i do. Anyway, i actually have something to talk about.

over the weekend we were suggested to read the first chapter in metamorphosis. i say suggested because we all know that if we don't want to, we don't have to, isn't senior year nice. but what i found most intriguing and connecting to our school experience is that of Gregor's reaction to his current primitive bug state. As we discussed in class, most of us would have immediately begun to lose control and scream in whatever squealing noise we could. Gregor, unknown to us of how he was able to do so, kept his cool and was fretting more on how he would get to work on time and what consequences he might face in the office. he managed to wiggle and squirm his way out of bed onto the floor, continually thinking about ways to protect his head. he then had the clarity of mind to use his mandible to manipulate the key until the door was opened. Can any of us students perceiving an instance where we could be so calm?

All of Gregor's clear-minded decisions seem to be in stark contrast to the actions and reactions of high schoolers. i am not saying that we are running around like a chicken that is about to hit the pot; and by no means am i attempting to sound like an exert, but doesn't it seem that there has been and always will be too much nonsense misunderstandings. What causes this nonsense to be so prevalent? i find it to be directly related to teenagers worries with being socially accepted and others perceptions of themselves. Any comment that is made about a teenager must be reacted too, so that the teen doesn't seem weak, different, or outside of the group. if they were to only give themselves a minute to mull over the comment and decide if anything should be done, rather than blurt some nonsense back into the cesspool of jiberish. our school is small and word spreads rapidly about a random and insignificant rumor, but only the response and retalliation spreads faster.

i just see that an easy solution to nonsense and pointless debacles (defintion)between friends is a simple meditation of what the situation really is. Think it over, does it warrent an imediate response? What can be an alternative means of reply? Do i really care about this anyway?

I think i have ramblemed my nonsense on long enough, so take a minute and think about what you need to concern your life with, if it is really worth you time, then you can yell at the person; just make sure you do a good job :)

Lets get to know eachother

So recently, the past day for me; the past three for the rest of the class, has been enveloping themselves in the wonderful world of college literature. It has been an exciting first few days filled with an eclectic group of people. As we have read and evaluated the readings assigned, we have been faced with questions regarding the either rude, unusual, or unaccepted actions of fictional characters. With both of the stories, "Every Little Hurricane" and the "Sutton Pie Safe", we were introduced to people with little background information up front. We had to make our decisions on what kinds of people the characters but what they said, did, and how the others reacted to them. Similar to this is our own interactions with people that we meet within our own lives. We are automatically assigning people with our first impressions and have a hard time to change them without a lot of interaction with that person. i dont see this changing anytime soon because this is the human nature and has in one way or another become the accept means of first interacting with people.