Thank you, Val

Problems.

With the topics of the USPS losing money and "The Singer Solution to World Poverty," the solution brought forth for each situation both involve money. All anyone thinks about today is money. Kids are taught to learn, go to school, and become successful for what? Money. However, money is not always the solution. No matter how much money I throw at a rock, it will not fly. Shrinking the USPS will not solve the issue, but rather simply make sending letters even less efficient, thus further discouraging people to use physical mail. Drones. Drones are the answer to everything. With drones, mail and packages can be sent with little cost. Sure, mailmen would lose their jobs, but they can instead work as drone monitors. Bam. Problem solved.  This didn't involve the government throwing needlessly large sums of money at the problem, but rather it reallocate resources to adapt to the situation. Sometimes problems don't have clear solutions. Instead of fighting the problem head on, it's necessary to just work around it. Extreme Drought in California? Move to Nevada. Tired of mosquitos? Move to California. Wait. No. Everyone in California already moved to Nevada. Live underwater. Last time I checked mosquitos live underwater. See? Sometimes you just have to work around the problem.

Now THIS is how you solve a problem.

As depicted numerous times throughout the novel, Art's parallel attitudes towards his father are shown within these panels. Art himself doesn't mind spending time with his father, yet he can't stand living with him. This is because of the things his father does. In this case, his father got rid of Anja's old journals. At this point, Art gets a lot angrier than he normally does at his father's actions. He even cusses at his father and calls him a "murderer," something "even to [his] friends [he] should never yell." By specifically using the word "murderer" instead of idiot or imbecile, Art is somewhat blaming his father for the death of his mother. Also, the last panel is shaded so it looks like tears are coming out of Art's eyes. Before this, he hasn't really shown much emotion towards the death of his mother, other than the comic in the middle. This shading represents the pain that doesn't heal. The pain of losing a parent, but also the pain of the holocaust. His father even says how the books had brought back so many bad memories. This shows that while Spiegelman depicted everyone as animals to somewhat mask the true terrors of the Holocaust, these mice themselves wear masks to not only protect themselves, but to prevent them from hurting the people they love.

Picture Perfect

For those who didn't know me when I was younger, this is me as a child. With the whole debate on whether photographs are a "irresistible form of mental pollution" (Sontag), both sides have valid arguments. It all depends on how you use it. For example, the photo above is used to document and preserve my image as a child. Therefor, one may argue that photographs and pictures bring a sense of truth and documentation that are important. However, the photo above is not me. All I did was search up "asian child" on google images and selected the first image of a boy. Those against photographs would then argue that images are deceitful. Yes, I agree. Pictures can be misleading, especially with photoshop readily available (but at a whopping $120+ a year). However, isn't life also deceitful? Whether it's news stories, magazines, or even friends and family, everyone and everything lie. That poptart you had for breakfast wasn't actually a poptart. It was a Toaster Tart.

Also, without photographs, I wouldn't be able keep my self esteem up every day.

Without photographs, cops wouldn't know who to look for when catching criminals. Therefore if you argue that photographs are bad, then you support crime.

Also without photos, this would never be possible.

Check out Andrew Yuan Photography @ https://www.facebook.com/AndrewYuanPhotography

While reading the Consider the Lobster, I couldn't help but to wonder what life would be like if humans didn't eat lobsters. First off, Red Lobster wouldn't exist. Also, buffets would be less popular, considering how many people (my parents) only go to buffets to eat lobster. There's an infinite amount of what if's about how the world would be different if humans didn't do certain things. However, those who eat meat, whether it's lobster meat or beef have already accepted the fact that their food was once living, moving just as they themselves do. If this wasn't the case, then they would simply refuse to eat meat and be vegetarians. Even so, us humans have assigned the task of butchering these once breathing forms of sustenance to others, just so we ourselves do not have to feel the guilt of killing an animal. Therefore, like Wallace himself admits that he hasn't "succeeded in working out any sort of personal ethical system" for which the issue of killing lobsters will make him change is eating habits. In the world, there are predators and prey to keep species populations under control. WIthout us humans, lobsters could possibly be so plentiful that they eventually outnumber us and enslave the human race. Therefore, us lobster-eaters are in fact saving the world. 8)

Tick. Tock.

With the whole idea of multiplicity, the movie The Hours, time itself is what makes the movie unique. By shifting between three different time periods, the audience simply gets snippets of daily life that seems completely unrelated (of course only to those who haven't read Mrs. Dalloway). However, through the contrasts of these three depictions, the same conclusion arrises. No matter how hard we try, we "still have to face the hours." Although Richard Brown tries to write about everything that happens in a moment, he can only get as minute as one single day. Also, Richard even tells Clarissa he "seems to have fallen out of time." foreshadowing his inevitable death. Virginia Woolf also lives a tragic life. As we find out in the movie, she moves to Richmond for her own safety, so her husband can keep careful watch of her. However, time must continue. Woolf's unrelenting desire for freedom causes her to fight with her husband, exclaiming, "You cannot find peace avoiding life." No matter how hard we try, no one can stop time. As tragic as it is, death is unavoidable. However, as Virginia states, "Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more. It's contrast."

Ahoy Me Matey

"Suddenly Elizabeth stepped forward and most competently boarded the omnibus, in front of everybody. She took a seat on top. The impetuous creature-a pirate-started forward, sprang away. she had to hold the rail to steady herself, for a pirate it was, reckless, unscrupulous, bearing down ruthlessly, circumventing dangerously, boldly snatching a passenger, or ignoring a passenger, squeezing eel-like and arrogant in between, and then rushing insolently all sails spread up Whitehall. And did Elizabeth give one thought to poor Miss Kilman who loved her without jealousy, to whom she had been a fawn in the open, a moon in a glade? She was delighted to be free. The fresh air was so delicious. It had been so stuffy in the Army and Navy stores. And now it was like riding, to be rushing up Whitehall; and to each movement of the omnibus the beautiful body in the fawn-coloured coat responded freely like a rider, like the figure-head of a ship, for the breezy slightly disarrayed her; the heat gave her cheeks the pallor of white painted wood; and her fine eyes, having no eyes to meet, gazed ahead, blank, bright, with the staring incredible innocence of sculpture" (135).



    Elizabeth, being a yee little lad, is constantly surrounded by older people. By coming from wealth, she's expected to act classy and mature. However, her trip on the omnibus reveals her hungarrrr for adventarrrre. She describes the bus as being a pirate, yet it acts more of a pirate ship, "rushing up Whitehall." With Miss Kilman almost forcing her love onto Elizabeth, Elizabeth just desperately wishes to be free. She's almost living a double life; on the outside she lives a rich, civilized life, yet she desiarrrrrs for freedom and adventure. Avast ye, Elizabeth describes the fresh airrrrrrr as being "delicious," so freedom itself is what sustains her, Savvy? Shiver me timbers! By living a life of multiplicity, the lassie feels isolated, "having no eyes to meet"-almost as if she's trapped in Davy Jones' Locker. Being a pirate is generally seen as a manly occupation, yet Elizabeth wants to batten down the hatch and be free like a pirate. She doesn't carrrre about society's gender roles, but rather what her harrrrrt desires. Therefore she represents the "incredible innocence" that once existed within every person.

    So in a time like today, we should not allow society to kill our inner pirate. Arrrrggghhh! Fight for freedom, fight for justice! Don't let anyone tell you you can't.

Septimus

"Was he not like Keats? she asked; and reflected how she might give him a taste of Antony and Cleopatra and the rest; lent him books' wrote him scraps of letters' and lit in him such a fire as burns only once in a lifetime, without heat, flickering a red gold flame infinitely ethereal and insubstantial over Miss Pole; Antony and Cleopatra; and the Waterloo Road. He thought her beautiful, believed her impeccably wise; dreamed of her, wrote poems to her, which, ignoring the subject, she corrected in red ink; he saw her, one summer evening, walking in a green dress in a square. 'It has flowered,' the gardener might have said, had he opened the door; had he come in, that is to say, any night about this time, and found him writing; found him tearing up his writing; found him finishing a masterpiece at three o'clock in the morning and running out to pace the streets, and visiting churches, and fasting one day, drinking another, devouring Shakespeare, Darwin, The History of Civilisation, and Bernard Shaw" (85).

    This passage brings to light what Septimus used to be before the war. It's nice to see how Septimus was capable of loving someone, of feeling. However, this also makes this current situation with PTSD even more tragic, for he does not think of  Rezia as beautiful or impeccably wise. Instead, whenever Septimus is with his wife, he's thinking of death, war, or Evans. Not only did Septimus lose his friend Evans in the war, but his ability to feel and his grasp on life.

    The mentioning of Antony and Cleopatra is quite interesting. Having pretty much the same ending as Romeo and Juliet (seriously the ending is ALMOST THE SAME... love causes them BOTH TO KILL THEMSELVES...), Antony and Cleopatra may be foreshadowing to something tragic later on in the book. Since Keats is giving him "a taste" of the play, and being the woman he loved before the love, the idea of the play should be somewhat imbedded in his mind. Whether it's him killing himself after his wife leaves him or dies from misery or him killing himself from survivor's guilt, the future of Septimus does not seem bright.
 
    Another detail beautifully crafted into this passage is the idea of how ordinary Septimus's life was before the war. Not the boring ordinary, but rather the normal, correct ordinary. This passage presents the idea that he would often experience all of the ups and downs of life. He had a crush on Keats, whom lit a fire that burns "only once in a lifetime." Also, he experiences the struggles of his poetry career, sometimes tearing up his writing in frustration, sometimes running out to pace the streets in satisfaction. His devouring of plays (Shakespeare), science (Darwin), history (The History of Civilisation) and journalism (Bernard Shaw) illustrates how he was involved in all aspects of life prior to the war, which ultimately emphasizes the tragedy Septimus's current state of mind.

Social Media

As the internet gets bigger and bigger, each generation gets more involved in it. This has affected society both in a positive and a negative way. Although people are more connected through social media, the whole idea of socialization has begun to change. Now a days people are more concerned with how many friends they have on Facebook, or how many followers they have on Twitter. Not only does this trend change perception of identity, but it also can cause depression. The news has been covering more and more stories about suicide due to depression from bullying. Like in YouTube comments, it's a lot easier to troll around hurt others through a computer screen, than to bully them in real life. Sometimes the computer screen seems like a "small square of the windowpane," small and impossible to escape (Woolf 2). With kids spending more and more time on the internet, reality may shift from the real world to the digital world. Teenagers these days are often concerned with how many favorites their tweets get, or how many people say happy birthday to them on Facebook. Although social media helps people socialize, it can also hinder socialization. You can't really tell the emotions of the person you're talking to through a computer screen. Therefore signs of depression are harder to notice. Sometimes we just need to look up from our handheld devices and just ask how our friends are doing, and stay a little bit away from social media. 

PSA: Being Different

Like Nancy Mairs' Disability piece, Amy Tan brings to light the idea of being different. She ends up feeling embarrassed and ashamed for simply being different. Especially in high school, people just want to fit in. They want to be accepted and fit into their group of friends or cliques. However, that doesn't justify being ashamed of who they are. Not only is it important to be proud of your culture, but it's also important to just be yourself. High school is only four short years. What happens there does not define who a person is. So what if some people don't want to cut their hair even though it's starting to look like a straight haired afro? So what if some people like wearing crocs because they're comfortable, yet stylish? Or, as Amy might say, who cares if some people eat "stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges" instead of roasted turkey and sweet potatoes for Christmas (Tan 95)? Everyone should take pride in being unique. As my friend's blog title says, You [is] for Unique (check out the blog). However, this does not mean people should go around trying to be all hipster. It is definitely not a good idea to reject all of society's rules and decide to never wear clothes again in hopes to be "unique".  That being said, "your only shame is to have shame" (95).

Words

    While we were discussing Mairs's Disability piece and how media misrepresents disabled people, Joe Swanson immediately came into my mind. Before reading this piece, I never really thought much of him; he was just a handicapped character that would occasionally provide comedic relief through his ignorance. However, now that I think about it, what's funny to me may not necessarily be funny to others. I know I don't find Asian jokes to be very funny; I'm sure handicapped people don't find the portrayal of people like Joe Swanson to be very funny either. However, this brings light to a separate issue. Maybe kids learn to make fun of others by seeing such ridicule in comedic television shows, thus thinking it's acceptable. These examples of ridicule and mockery are perceived as normal because the characters themselves lack the "complexities that round out a character and make her whole" (Mairs 14). What I mean is, people never see how the name calling, the racist, sexist jokes actually affect the characters' emotions. Just like how their outfits never change, cartoon characters in Family Guy, The Simpsons, and many other shows lack any change in their personalities. They can be made fun of, physically beaten or or even die (Kenny from Southpark), yet the next day they're back to normal. Kids may interpret this as a green flag to make fun of others, as long as some people find it funny. The saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" is total bogus. Words hurt. A lot. The earlier they realize how distorted the media is and how powerful words are, the better.

SNOW DAY!!!!!