The final blog that will make everybody hate each other! Hahahahaha!

There are many debates taking place in America. However in this topic we only care about the three most divisive. 1) Evolution vs. Creationism (is there a god). 2) Should it be legal to abort fetuses and the moral reasoning behind such an act. 3) Conservatives vs liberals. Who is destroying our country?

Here is an example and does not necessarily reflect my viewpoints. I shall take the stereotypical viewpoint of a "conservative Christian" and I easily could have done this with the "atheist liberal" stereotype as well.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Not some exploding nothingness! Scientists keep forgetting the Big Bang is a theory! How could someone believe all this life came from a pool of stirring mud! No sir God created each and everyone one of us in his image. That is exactly why abortion should be punished with severe prison time! How can you murder one of God's precious souls, especially with all this talk that life doesn't begin at conception which we know is a bold faced lie. It all comes down to these darn dirty liberals. They've been poising our youth with their lies and hidden socialist agendas for years. If our founding fathers were alive today they would be leading another revolution to take down this regime!

So please hit all three points in your response and have fun!

time travel

Seeing how this could possibly be the last blog we do as a class, I think it is important to remember the memories. With those memories and a past we start to build our future. All's the past an the future is time. This week's blog is all about time. When would you go back in time if you could? I know I would go back to when people started having war because of religion just because it makes no sense to me. It can be your life though too. So once again when would you go back in time if you could?

Summer Fun

Here we are, with only fourteen more days left in school before we graduate. I am sure we are all very excited not only for graduation, but summer. I know I am. So for this blog, talk about what you will be doing this summer. Maybe work, travel, move etc. Be specific, and make it fun! :)

Superpowers

As you all are aware of, we have been reading invisible man for the past month. Although in the book, he is not actually invisible, he feels as though he is. That being said, if you could  ONE superpower, what would you choose?

Warmer Weather

So, I feel like we have beat this Invisible Man thing to death, so I don't really feel like attempting to make conversation about it. Now that the days are getting longer, the snow is melting, and it is no longer freezing at all times of day and night, what are your plans for this spring? I, for one, would like to start roping outside now that arenas are no longer covered in snow, and maybe go shoot some coyotes. Don't hold back and have fun.

Battle Royal!

Alright, so we have been talking a lot about the fight scene in I.M. so I thought it would be ok to talk about some violent themes here. There is a nice quote by Robert A. Heinlein that may cause a bit of a ruckus. It goes like this,  “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.”
Agree? Disagree? GO.

The Importance of History?

As we have studied and are currently studying different types of literature and their impact and importance in history I have often wondered why do we study history? Why it is that history is a core class, and why is it required or held on the same level as the disciplines of math, science, and English? Why is it that we study literature from all different periods of history instead of just focusing on modern works? How does history impact us, or does it? Should history classes be valued at the same level as the subjects of math, science, and English?

Worth

   Touching on the class reading book, "Invisible Man", which (to my knowledge), delves into the topic of racial differences. So for this weeks topic, I propose we ponder the factors and steps that lead a near total loss of respect for the value or worth or individuals of a different "race", thus resulting in racial tension. Today we know that there is no difference between someone with a higher concentration of melanin that someone with a low concentration, yet still ill feelings remain. What factors in beliefs or society lead to this?

Invisible Us

Soon we will be starting to read The Invisible Man, and even though I have very little knowledge about what the book is about, the title got me thinking. What if I was invisible? Now, not the invisible like a ghost who sneaks into girls' dressing rooms, but the invisible where nobody really noticed me. I would have no real friends who I could spark interest in and relate to, no teachers or bosses who would acknowledge my good work, nobody around me who would laugh at a joke, and not even a family who would miss me when I was gone. I would be a real nobody. What would I do with my life? Would I just shrivel up and do nothing with my life? Would I run away to the wilderness to live a simply life of survival and solitude? Would I try to do ridiculous things to rouse peoples' attention? Would I go insane? What would I do to be happy, or could I ever truly be happy? Tell me what you would do with your life if you were "invisible."

Future Plans

Well, our time here is almost up. Less than four months are between us and our diplomas. For some, reality won't hit until the last moment. Others, it has hit already, the realization that we have to put on our big boy/girl pants and go out into the real world. Senioritis has taken many victims already, including myself to an extent. But it just gets me more and more stoked for what is to come, like the spring break trip and eventually graduating!

My question for you is this: where will you be a year from now?

When I was watching the Super Bowl, I couldn't help but wonder where I will be watching it from next year. Personally, I hope that I will be on some Air Force base getting hammered with some friends and having a good time (and watching the Patriots).

Memories

Senior project is over and we have moved on to our last few months as high school students. Looking back at all of our memories, it's hard to imagine where all of the time has gone. For this blog I thought we would take a trip down memory road and share our favorite high school memory. Dig deep and find something fun and memorable to you to share with the group.

Cartoons

Drew, Logan, and I were discussing the appeal between the cartoons we grew up with and the ones that are popular now. I find that the cartoons of our younger years are far better than the ones of today.

For this blog, since we are analyzing things, I want you all to choose your favorite 90's cartoon and analyze why you think it is the best and what was so appealing. If you can, try to find a deeper meaning.

My favorite cartoon was probably a tie between "courage the cowardly dog" and "samurai jack". These were my favorites, because I believe it was more than just an adventure each episode. Courage dealt with fear and did whatever it took to keep his owners safe, that could be determined as a metaphor for the dangers of life and perhaps even childhood. I also believe that limited vocabulary that courage has takes a huge role, because he can not fully explain his fear, therefore he must physically deal with the problem.

Vocabulary Words & Poetry Reading Assignment

Hello all.

Well, I'm not sure what happened with the blog this weekend (Patrick?), but I hope you all enjoyed your extra day off.  Here are the vocabulary words for your first poetry vocab. quiz, which will be next Tuesday (the 29th).  The definitions are all in the packet I handed out to you last week.  It will be fill in the blank, but you will have to know how to spell them.  Rather than simply matching them with the definitions, however, you will be asked to recognize several in action (ie. The phrase "jumbo shrimp" in the poem above is an example of a(n) ______________________ [oxymoron]). 

1.       Allusion

2.       Assonance

3.       Cacophony

4.       Couplet

5.       End-stopped

6.       Enjambment

7.       Euphony

8.       Heroic couplet

9.       Litotes

10.   Metaphor

11.   Meter

12.   Metonymy

13.   Onomatopoeia

14.   Oxymoron

15.   Prosody

16.   Quatrain

17.   Rhythm

18.   Simile

19.   Synecdoche

 

In addition, the time has arrived for you to do some poetry analysis on your own.  Over the next three weeks, I would like you to select three poems per week from the following website, print them out, and respond to the ten questions we have covered in class for each poem (you may do it on the same sheet on which you print the poem): http://www.poetryfoundation.org/.  The three poems from the previous week will be due each Monday.  I will grade on how insightful and detailed your responses are, with particular emphasis on how well you analyze the language/poetic devices.

On another note, we will be starting Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man about mid-February, so I would like you to purchase a copy and have it in your possession by the 11th.  It is a widely published book, and you should be able to find a used copy for fairly cheap.

See you in class.
Mr. Pace

MLA Citation Guidelines

Hi all,

I enjoyed our discussion this morning; hopefully it helped strengthen some of your arguments.  As promised, here is a link to a citation guide for MLA format: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/1/. 

It outlines the way to integrate all types of sources both in-text and on your works cited page.  Let me know if you have any troubles, and I'll try to respond.

Cheers,
Mr. Pace

A Students Future

One more week is all that lies between us and the halfway point of our last year in Salmon High School. Among our class, I have yet to talk to anyone who fails to be ecstatic at the prospect of perpetual freedom. With this freedom however comes the opportunity to accomplish our dreams. So I ask what are the dreams you will immediately pursue after we have walked out these doors?

At the beginning of fall I had plans to apply to multiple institutions, yet have found myself only to have done the paperwork for one. Soon enough however I will apply to BSU and  CCA. Most likely I will begin classes at University of Idaho where I plan to major in English with a writing emphasis and minor in Broadcasting. At the same time starting this summer, I will begin to learn how to make short films of my own.