Gretel Ehrlich really makes you want to go out to Wyoming. The way she describes the settings is wonderful. The details she provides for us as readers makes you want to read her over and over. From the Journals chronicles her existance in the rugged western territory. She was out there to help research her book, and to get a better feel of the land. I especially liked when she went to Key West, Florida to see Ernest Hemmingway's house. She thought that he lived a very privliged lifestyle. He in fact did not. He lived quite the opposite. In both The Solace of Open Spaces & Pinkey, I was more involved with the reading because of the narrative. In the journals, everyting is told and not shown. But in eack short story, I read in more detail about each place. One example is the description she gives about cowboys and how they strive to stay on the land. Even the land is given more desciption. In the Journal, I felt that not much was told about each place. But then again, this was a journal and not a novel.
Also, I wanted to get more in the proper mindset of where this place is. So before I read the readings, I read the short story Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx. What Proulx does in Brokeback is make the setting of Wyoming a character, which reflects the main characters feelings. Like when "Enis Del Mar" and "Jack Twist" ended the job for the summer, the weather was overcast reflecting how sad Enis was. So after reading the story I knew what I was getting into.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The Hunter
These kids think that hunting is so easy. Well, I told them that hunting skills were no walk in the park. You need three things to be a good hunter: 1) Silence is Golden, 2) Accuracy is key, and 3) A fool traps himself. So now that they have the rules, these "hunters" practiced each art form. First, they practiced how well they could be silent. This was done easy enough because the professor had worked with them on that part. He taught them that silence was important if you wanted to not let your enemies know where you were. They displayed this by silently walking up to the back of the head hunter, and gave him a wedgie. We all laughed, and the head hunter gave each of us demerits for it. We had to do KP duty for a while. The next important thing about hunting was the accuracy. The other hunters set up target practice for the kids. Each was quite accurate, except for the one who emits water. His hands were rubbery, so he missed the target entirely. For him, he needed only the right environment to have good target practice. This was achieved by simply having him shoot at fish in the water. Finally, the trap setting was a little hard for all of them. They needed a lot of help to achieve this. The problem they had was the camouflage and bait aspect. They did not cover the trap well, and the bait was too far out of reach. I corrected them, and they soon had it. So now the boys were ready for true hunting.
Premonitions
I find myself under the most extreme conditions sometimes. I am a Christian and my belief in God is not so normal. I do believe in God and Jesus, but somehow sin always takes me away. There is something that happened to really pull me back into Christianity. I was 11, and my family and I were returning from a trip to Southern California. We were traveling around Anaheim, when I suddenly felt really weird. So my Mother suggested I lay down for a while. While I was laying down, I thought I was having a near death experience. I was seeing heaven, God, and even Jesus. It was really weird. Anyway, here I am in heaven, and God says to me that I will be in service to him someday. I then wake up and my Dad says that I have been asleep for only an hour. So now I think something big is going to happen to me.
Well, something big is happening to me. I have this unusual premonition power. It is only evident while I am totally unaware of it. I get certain feelings or pains. Like the day before the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympic games, I was in the SF State bookstore, and I felt this weird depression kick in. I later thought it was just "Senioritis," but then I saw what happened to the Georgian Luge member. And then I knew that something was going to happen to me.
Well, something big is happening to me. I have this unusual premonition power. It is only evident while I am totally unaware of it. I get certain feelings or pains. Like the day before the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympic games, I was in the SF State bookstore, and I felt this weird depression kick in. I later thought it was just "Senioritis," but then I saw what happened to the Georgian Luge member. And then I knew that something was going to happen to me.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Franz Kafka- a man of unusual taste
After reading the works of Franz Kafka, I can definitely say that this man was a wonderfully brilliant writer. His journals were wonderful, boring, and interesting. They were boring because we got to only see what happened to him on a daily basis in the first of the readings. The "blue books" were wonderful because of all the possible story ideas that we as readers rarely get to see. And the short story was interesting because of all the descriptions.
I really did not care for what happened in his daily life, as seen in his diary between 1917 and 1919. I would have liked to read about his life in a more novel like way. I did want to know what he did in his daily routine, but I also like a little insight as to what he is thinking about in his writings, and the people he works with.
The "blue book" journals were wonderful in their story ideas and daily thoughts about certain characters. I wanted to maybe steal a couple of ideas and write on them. The one thing I disagreed with him about was what he wrote about Homer's The Odyssey. He wrote that the main character was tied up, and had his ears covered when his crew were facing the Sirens. I remember that story a little differently. From what I remember, "Odyssius" was tied up, but did not have his ears covered because he wanted to hear the "seirens" song. Besides that, I really enjoyed those writings.
In reguards to the short story, I did not care too much for it. This is because I was lost in the descriptions of what each character was thinking. I like a story where the descriptions of each character can be told indirectly. This way I can know what is going on without really getting too much involved in what the character is doing.
I really did not care for what happened in his daily life, as seen in his diary between 1917 and 1919. I would have liked to read about his life in a more novel like way. I did want to know what he did in his daily routine, but I also like a little insight as to what he is thinking about in his writings, and the people he works with.
The "blue book" journals were wonderful in their story ideas and daily thoughts about certain characters. I wanted to maybe steal a couple of ideas and write on them. The one thing I disagreed with him about was what he wrote about Homer's The Odyssey. He wrote that the main character was tied up, and had his ears covered when his crew were facing the Sirens. I remember that story a little differently. From what I remember, "Odyssius" was tied up, but did not have his ears covered because he wanted to hear the "seirens" song. Besides that, I really enjoyed those writings.
In reguards to the short story, I did not care too much for it. This is because I was lost in the descriptions of what each character was thinking. I like a story where the descriptions of each character can be told indirectly. This way I can know what is going on without really getting too much involved in what the character is doing.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Dreams analyst
In looking at the readings for this week, I found myself thinking how odd daily life can be. And then I remembered that these were dreams written down by authors over a long period of time. Dreams are after all, just a reflection of what you are going on about in your daily lives. But they do have something interesting to them. The dreams can take on different forms of how things go on about your day. The are even seen sometimes as warnings to some people. I know in my dreams they can be premonitions of things to come. The only thing to do about this is to make sure the thing does not happen.
But getting back to the readings, I found the readings to be bizarrely wonderful so far. I find that I am able to visualise what sort of dream this person is having because the author writes the dream in a fiction sort of way, and not in a chronological order of events. As for the other reading of diary writing, I found it to be a mundane piece that has no relevance to this course. So writers keep diaries secret, big whoop. I think they choose to keep certain writings private because they think the writing is shit. I know that these blogs are. But I am allowing this to be workshopped because this is important to someone who would like to read it someday.
But getting back to the readings, I found the readings to be bizarrely wonderful so far. I find that I am able to visualise what sort of dream this person is having because the author writes the dream in a fiction sort of way, and not in a chronological order of events. As for the other reading of diary writing, I found it to be a mundane piece that has no relevance to this course. So writers keep diaries secret, big whoop. I think they choose to keep certain writings private because they think the writing is shit. I know that these blogs are. But I am allowing this to be workshopped because this is important to someone who would like to read it someday.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
King Tutankhamun exhibit
Last Friday, I decided to go up to the city and see the King Tut exhibit at the de Young museum. I must say that it was quite something looking at all of these ancient artifacts that existed during his ten year reign. His artifacts were not seen until the end of the exhibit. What I did look at before his things were some things his Great Grandparents and in laws owned. They varied between statues, jewelry, and models made from wood. Then came the main event, the personal things of King Tut. I first saw his games and childhood toys/furniture. The treasury was next. His collection could personally rival that of the crown jewels of England. Towards the end their was a case that held the king's liver. An interesting side note was that because of his sudden death, certain items that were meant for another famous person, were given to the boy king. Isn't that just awful that this boy died so suddenly, he had to have things, that were meant for other people, given just to him? Anyway, at the very end were you might be seeing King Tut's coffin there was a projection at the top of the screen, which showed an image of his coffin. I did not actually see his coffin because it's still in Egypt. That and his funeral mask are located in the Valley of the Kings. The Egyptian government was very adamant about how they wanted to keep his coffin and funeral mask in Egypt because they did not want his curse to be placed on anyone. In the end I did enjoy myself, and the exhibit was made even more special with an audio tour by Omar Sherif.
An interesting thing about the curse is that it can be explained through science. His death, for example, was caused by a badly infected tooth. And as for the curse, when the archaeologists found him, they were not properly sanitized, so they got an ancient mold inside them.
An interesting thing about the curse is that it can be explained through science. His death, for example, was caused by a badly infected tooth. And as for the curse, when the archaeologists found him, they were not properly sanitized, so they got an ancient mold inside them.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
New School Semester, my final one
Well blog fans, I am back from a lengthy three month hiatus. The last post was about finding out how my characters were going to do what they did in their lives. Now, I am giving you what goes on in my daily life. For the past week, my life has been filled with time in classes. I am currently taking at least four classes. This is a lot for me, and I know I can do it.
This past Monday, I found myself in two classes almost back to back. The only break I have is 15 minutes. The interesting thing is what to do within those 15 minutes. This is spent going from a high spot on the fourth floor, to the ground floor, in the Humanities building. This is no easy task, I assure you. The only thing stopping up this, is all of the students who have to use the grand staircase. But lucky for me, I did not have that problem that day. The only thing I had to worry about was what to do for a time filler. This was done by reading for pleasure. I had twice the time filler that day because I spent my morning also looking to find a way to fill up my day. I had to go and see a counselor about something, so I decided to catch the early bird and see my counselor at the earliest convenience. So after two classes, I went home glad that my first day was over.
Tuesday, was a day that was filled with nothing but the Futurama movies. I was watching the series because of the ten year millennium thing. Can you believe it's been ten years since we thought the end of the world was going to happen? So anyway, I was watching the movies, again as a time filler thing, because I had a night class. So I went later that night to my night class. The cool thing was I got to ride on BART after class in a route that I have not had in a while. When I was first going to San Francisco State University, I would often find myself first going backwards, then forwards because the train went up to the airport, then onward to San Bruno. This was always a big high for me going over the cars on 101. I really liked it.
Wednesday found me in a similar situation for I will now be making a hobby of what to do with two hours or so in the afternoon after a rigorous Bible study. This group, of which I am now a part, is a Christian Students group. I have been meaning to join them for a while now, but my class schedule was a bit off for me to be a part of their group. So now I am a part of their group studying the book of Philippians. This is just great. So after a pleasure reading time filler, I was off to a class that shares two days to take place in the week.
For Thursday, it was the biggest most eventful class, I have ever pursued. This was a return to a class that I once was waitlisted, but dropped out for personal reasons. This instructor would be my most intense, and final instructor that I will ever have the pleasure of knowing. His style is a bit rough, but with persistence, I know I can do well.
The three day weekend I had was spent doing all of my assignments, and getting my car registered. My assignments found me writing poetry about trees, a short story of a woman and her dog, highlighting key passages, and filling out necessary paperwork for graduation.
All of this brings be back to what I did for the past two days. In the past two days, I have pretty much done what I did last week, with one or two exceptions. For one thing, my first Monday class featured the all important workshops. For today, I have been going around San Francisco getting the necessities. I have also met with some of my Professors about assignments, and written in you, blog, for which I hope my writing can improve.
One final note. The place where I had to get a course reader for one of my classes I have had some feelings about for some time. I have had some feelings about this place because it always seemed a long walk for me. I found myself going to this copy place to get the course reader for a class I was taking. I was angry because I did not have a license at the time and had to walk to a lot of places. This place in particular I found was a really long walk. I had to go there on two separate occasions. The first time was to find out the reader was not available. The second time to actually pick it up. Well a few years later, I find that I have to go to that same goddamn place again to get a course reader. But now I had the upper hand. Instead of making myself walk all that long way just to get the course reader, I decided to go onto Google maps and see what they had to say. Well to my surprise, they had a solution that took half of the time it would normally take to get there. I was so thrilled. So knowing that I had the knowledge of what to do, I did it and kicked myself for not doing it sooner. That's all for now blog fans. Read you later!
This past Monday, I found myself in two classes almost back to back. The only break I have is 15 minutes. The interesting thing is what to do within those 15 minutes. This is spent going from a high spot on the fourth floor, to the ground floor, in the Humanities building. This is no easy task, I assure you. The only thing stopping up this, is all of the students who have to use the grand staircase. But lucky for me, I did not have that problem that day. The only thing I had to worry about was what to do for a time filler. This was done by reading for pleasure. I had twice the time filler that day because I spent my morning also looking to find a way to fill up my day. I had to go and see a counselor about something, so I decided to catch the early bird and see my counselor at the earliest convenience. So after two classes, I went home glad that my first day was over.
Tuesday, was a day that was filled with nothing but the Futurama movies. I was watching the series because of the ten year millennium thing. Can you believe it's been ten years since we thought the end of the world was going to happen? So anyway, I was watching the movies, again as a time filler thing, because I had a night class. So I went later that night to my night class. The cool thing was I got to ride on BART after class in a route that I have not had in a while. When I was first going to San Francisco State University, I would often find myself first going backwards, then forwards because the train went up to the airport, then onward to San Bruno. This was always a big high for me going over the cars on 101. I really liked it.
Wednesday found me in a similar situation for I will now be making a hobby of what to do with two hours or so in the afternoon after a rigorous Bible study. This group, of which I am now a part, is a Christian Students group. I have been meaning to join them for a while now, but my class schedule was a bit off for me to be a part of their group. So now I am a part of their group studying the book of Philippians. This is just great. So after a pleasure reading time filler, I was off to a class that shares two days to take place in the week.
For Thursday, it was the biggest most eventful class, I have ever pursued. This was a return to a class that I once was waitlisted, but dropped out for personal reasons. This instructor would be my most intense, and final instructor that I will ever have the pleasure of knowing. His style is a bit rough, but with persistence, I know I can do well.
The three day weekend I had was spent doing all of my assignments, and getting my car registered. My assignments found me writing poetry about trees, a short story of a woman and her dog, highlighting key passages, and filling out necessary paperwork for graduation.
All of this brings be back to what I did for the past two days. In the past two days, I have pretty much done what I did last week, with one or two exceptions. For one thing, my first Monday class featured the all important workshops. For today, I have been going around San Francisco getting the necessities. I have also met with some of my Professors about assignments, and written in you, blog, for which I hope my writing can improve.
One final note. The place where I had to get a course reader for one of my classes I have had some feelings about for some time. I have had some feelings about this place because it always seemed a long walk for me. I found myself going to this copy place to get the course reader for a class I was taking. I was angry because I did not have a license at the time and had to walk to a lot of places. This place in particular I found was a really long walk. I had to go there on two separate occasions. The first time was to find out the reader was not available. The second time to actually pick it up. Well a few years later, I find that I have to go to that same goddamn place again to get a course reader. But now I had the upper hand. Instead of making myself walk all that long way just to get the course reader, I decided to go onto Google maps and see what they had to say. Well to my surprise, they had a solution that took half of the time it would normally take to get there. I was so thrilled. So knowing that I had the knowledge of what to do, I did it and kicked myself for not doing it sooner. That's all for now blog fans. Read you later!
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