Hey Ma, I’m on the Internet!

  As Mr. Fisher requested, the Grade 8s are doing a sweep of the Grade 7s blogs for interesting, high quality water blogs to use during our water systems part of the curriculum. Problem is, most of these are about the environment instead of water like he wants, or the links are broken and won’t work for me no matter how hard I beg and plead. :[

   One of the few all-water-all-the-time blogs I’ve seen so far. From what I’ve looked at so far it is appropriate and well made. Made by the Portland Water Bureau.

  Waterwired is sponsered by the Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregons State University. They post frequently and while not eyecatching it’s easy to navigate the site.

  In these chapters the book begins to wind down. The entirety of chapter 11 is Pony talking with Randy (Bob’s friend). In chapter 12 Pony goes to court, deals with greasers, and basically tries to get his life back. He’s assigned a 5 or more page story to be written. When Pony and Darry argue one night, putting Soda in the middle of it, he storms out of the house. They have a brotherly moment and calm down a little. Looking for reading material, Pony finally decides to read the copy of Gone with the Wind that Johnny left for him. In it he finds a note that helps him understand; to cope with his loss. He decides to write his essay on the recent events in his life.

  I’d like to point out that this isn’t a happy ending. We don’t know if Darry and his brothers get to stay together, we don’t learn if he salvages his marks, and there may be more trouble down the road with the Socs and the Greasers. Considering the plot of this novel, this is as close to a happy ending you’ll get.

  These two chapters are about… survival. Under a lot of emotional, physical, and mental stress Pony has sort of shut down in order to survive. He ignores the facts and becomes ignorant to Johnny’s death and the murder he [Johnny] commited.  He survived the flaming church, almost drowning, and running from the law, but now he’s surviving in a  different sense. He’s surviving mentally. His sense are kind of dulled now, to, to deal with all of this.

  “Two-Bit was inside talking to some girls when a car drove up and three Socs got out. I just sat there and looked at them and took another swallow of the Pepsi. I wasn’t scared. It was the oddest fealing in the world. I didn’t feel anything- scared, mad, or anything. Just zero”.

  It’s not just Pony either. When Dally went down, he took Two-Bit’s switchblade with him. Two-Bit realizes this, and he also realizes it’s not just the switchblade he is troubled about. He wishes it was, though. Soda is dealing with losing his girlfriend, Sandy, whom he wanted to marry. Darry has to deal with Ponys sickness on top of the rest of his workload.

  Well, I finally finished the lot of the blog posts. Yay me! To celebrate, I present you with a long overdue .gif file.

  In chapter 9 the boys fight in the big Socs vs. Greasers, featuring a suprise appearance by Dally, who used a knife to convince a nurse to let him go. Afterwards Dally and Ponyboy go the hospital, and Johnny dies.

  In chapter 10 Ponyboy, still pretty shaken up from Johnny’s death and his injuries from the rumble, tells the gang of Johnny’s death. They go down to the open lot after getting a call from Dally and witness as he commits suicide with a little help from the cops. Pony passes out and wakes up in his bed.

  These two chapters are about… fear. Pony is too afraid to deal with all these sudden changes in his life, he doesn’t want to deal with the fear of being alone without Johnny and Dally, so he dreams JC is still alive. He’s afraid of the future, and what’s in store for him. His friends and family fear for their safety and his.

  “… I looked at the paperback lying on the table. I didn’t want to finish it. I’d never get past the part where the southern gentlemen go riding into sure death because they are gallant. Southern gentlemen with big black eyes in blue jeans and T-shirts, Southern gentlemen crumpling under street lights…”

  ”…”Johnny…. he’s dead.” My voice sounded strange, even to me. But he’s not dead, a voice in my head said.”

Yeah, boring title.

  In Chapter 7 the three brothers were harassed by the paparazzi. After that they went home and Johnny enjoys it. We get a hint that Sodapop has his own problems…
  Chapter 8, Pony and Two-Bit go to see Johnny. He busted his back and will never be able to walk again. Johnny’s mother came to see him, but Johnny never wanted to see her. They also visited Darry, who hurt one of his arms. They went to the bus stop for a ride home, and Pony met up with Cherry.

  These two chapter focus on…. friendship. N0w that Pony is back home, he can pal around with Two Bit, Soda, Darry and the likes of ‘em. He looks out for his friends, and vice versa, as shown when Pony gets a fever of sorts when Two Bit asks Pony if he’s feeling good.

  “…Two-Bit came running into the kitchen. He caugh me by the upper arms and swung me around, ignoring the fact that I had two uncooked eggs in my hand. “Hey Ponyboy”, he cried gleefully, “long time no see”.

There are too many quotes of looking-out-for-each-otherness and other ways to generally express friendship to list, but this one in particular stuck out to me. I’m not entirely sure why…

  Yeah, lame title. sue me.

   The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, is… pretty good actually. When I brought the book home to read the first two chapters  I.. I couldn’t put the book down (as lame as that sounds) and ended up reading it to the end. When my father saw The Outsiders sitting on the dining room table he was impressed that I would read a book like that; My dad read it as a kid. I don’t have the heart to tell him it’s a novel assignment.

  Basically the book is about the struggles between two different classes (for lack of a better word) in society, basically the rich and the poor, from the poor perspective, because frankly it makes for a better story.

  My favourite character in the book would be Johnny Cade. The book describes him as a “little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers.” He was the second youngest, smaller than the others with a slight build, large black eyes, a tanned face, greasy jet black hair combed to the side and had a nervous disposition. He’s been badly trounced by the Socs ,and the stuff that happens to him in the rest of the book is downright shocking, and over half the major events in the book involve him in some way or another.. His parents beat him and abuse him daily; the only people that cared for him was the gang. I’m a sucker for the underdog, and he certainly fits the bill.

    In this leg of the novel S.E.  Hinton takes her dear sweet time introducing the characters and telling you all about them. The Socs are introduced when Ponyboy (the story is told from his point of view) are jumped by a small gang of them. In chapter two the gang goes to the Drive-In movies and to their suprise meet up with a pair of Socs girls. They talk about how rough they have it, and Ponyboy mentions how Johnny got mauled by the Socs. Johnny wished he had troubles like theres.

  This week in Social Studies My class got to talk with the children from LA we’ll be interacting with all year. It was a new experience for me, and my first impression wasn’t neccesarily a good one. On the first class I essentially spent fourty-five minutes wrestling with the server. The second class, however, was much more productive and we made up for the time we had lost from the first get together. I was the scribe while Tiffany was away.

  We had agreed that power was the contol someone, or something, had over another. Power could be measured in a relationship in many ways, such as supply vs. demand. If you can control someones demands, you’ll no doubt have power over them. However, power is often money.

  Power in a relationship can be a fickle thing. Everyone wants to be a somebody, to have power. Some relationships are torn apart by this struggle for power. As I’ve said before: Power corrupts and will change people. The worst possible outcome of corruption? Opression.

    Some people will choose whatever will directly benefit them instead of what will be best in the long run. Power is a precious thing, and it’s a thing people want to protect. Because of this the obvious things are occasionally ignored while they are busy looking into the smaller details.

 Power is important to people because it’s often directly tied to wealth. With wealth you can let you acquire your more shallow desires. The more weath you have, in turn, will directly affect your power. If you have enough power it’s not unusual to get special treatment which can allow you to bend all sorts of things, such as the law. *cough* ParisHilton *cough*

  The Bet vs. The Veldt

  On the surface, The Bet and The Veldt seem very different, with almost nothing in common besides them both taking place in a house. In order to see the similarities you have to look deeper into the story- into the lessons they teach and concepts they revolve around.

The Differences

  The differences of the story are easier to pick apart. For one, The Bet takes place in the past- some 150 years ago- and The Veldt takes place in the present or near future. The Bet takes place over the course of 15 (or more) years. The Veldt’s story spans about a week.  As far as I know, The Bet didn’t have any inspiration. The Veldt borrowed heavily from the world of Peter Pan, which had came out about 15 years before it. The characters are very different as well. The most obvious difference between them is that no character in Anton Checkhov’s story have names while The Veldt actually has names in the more literal sense. The Veldt is about a struggle for power while The Bet is more about self-control.

Similarities

  The similarities between the stories are more subtle. Both shine some light on the more pitiful aspect of mankind, Which is the desire for material things. Both involve Need vs  Desire, and Power vs. Relations. Seeing things from the perspective of a neutral party changes things quite a bit, or at least for me.

  Both of the stories are relatively short, clocking in at about seven or so pages and make you realise how foolish people act, even if not as extreme as locking yourself up for 15 years. I’m sure I’m missing a lot of messages in the stories about not spoiling your children or something, but I’m not too good at reading inbetween the lines.

  The Veldt and  the Bet.

The Veldt 

While The Bet was more about power and relationships, The Veldt, by Ray Bradbury is more about desire and need. The children honestly believe they need the house and the services it provides- Shoe tieing,  meal cooking, transportation, and so on,- while the parents want to shut off the house and return the old way of life, fulfilling their needs themselves.

  Read the story carefully. The story is a terrible, twisted version of Peter Pan. The kids Peter and Wendy want to never grow up and use the nursery to fulfill their deluded fantasies. The nursery becomes their Neverland, and in Neverland there are no adults. When the parents try to take away their Neverland, the kids take drastic measures to preserve it. Gruesome measures, at that.

  The kids have all they could ever want, and this seems to twist their minds until they snap. They’ll do anything to protect their desires. They have no need for their parents anymore; The house is their parent. The adults are on the other end of the spectrum. Because of the house, the parents can’t properly raise their children. They have nothing to do and in a vain attempt to restore order decide to shut down the house, so they can raise their kids. Being raised by the house, chances are the kids couldn’t develop a proper emotional health.

  Let me begin by saying that money is the absolute root of all evil. I’m absolutely certain that without money the world would be a much better place. Money brings with it greed and pride, poverty and superiority. Pride can be a very, very bad thing. Many proud people won’t stand for things they don’t agree with. If someone disagrees, you do not have to retaliate. Be the bigger man and back down. For most of the proud, they don’t consider this an option. When you think about it, the family’s problems started with money (They bought the Happy Home thing to show off their wealth) .

  Money also brings with it the ability to fill one’s desires. When your desires are filled, you develop a sort of reliance on them. The kids, for example, desired the nursery. When they got the nursery an addiction to it was formed. The parents tried to take away the nursery, and were killed. They were killed so the kids could keep their desire, and the sanctity it brought with it.

  Like The Bet, The Veldt also has a web of relationships between three main seperate parties: the parents, the children, and the house. The house had power over the kids. The parents had power over the house. Even though they didn’t know it, the children had power over the parents. The parents had a positive relationship with the kids, but it was one-sided. Peter and Wendy had a positive relationship with the house and the house only.

Frankly, this entire story gives me the creeps. Probably because when the kids killed their parents, they just didn’t care.

Warning! Possible Spoilers! 

the story 

  When this book was first written, big, fat books were considered good in Russia. If someone saw a large book, they thought it would be a real page turner. Anton Chekhov was an amazing writer, and one of his best books was the short story The Bet, at only 5-7 pages long.

   Basically, The Bet is about two men who are never named, the banker and the lawyer. Early on in the book, the lawyer and the banker both attend a party. When the party guests began talking about wether Russia should continue using capital punishment, the banker chimed in, expressing his belief that it would be better to die immediately rather than have your life slowly whittled away in prison. The lawyer had a different view, believing life in prison is better than no life at all, and the government had no right to take away something they could not give back.

   The foolhardy banker makes a bet with the lawyer for two million rubles that the lawyer wouldn’t last five years in prison. The lawyer accepted the bet, saying he could last fifteen years in prison.

The Relationship

  The power in the relationship belongs to the banker at first- he has the lawyer in his house as a prisoner and controls what the lawyer can and can’t have. However, near the end the lawyer soon gains power over the banker because the lawyer learns how to manipulate the banker’s emotionships, which actually saves his life.

   Usually, the one with the power is the one in control. Those without out the power will usually bend to the whim of the more powerful person. This usually puts a strain on the relationship. When power shifts in a relationship it mostly further sours it.

  Power corrupts. A character with power gets to call the shots. No one wants to be involved with a power-hungry maniac, but they often don’t have a choice. If someone has power, they can do whatever they want, which can be for better (Ghandi) or for worse (Hitler). With power comes responsibility, and with responsibility comes stress.

I’ve finally finished my Voicethread. It was actually completed a week ago, but I didn’t know we were supposed to link to it- I had thought we were supposed to embed it.

If you’re still here, go click the link.